BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
105 
“In reply to what you need, I can give you this from my 
own experience,—that life is only bearable when lived de¬ 
pending upon one’s own resources for passing the time, and 
upon the few spiritually congenial persons with whom I 
have formed lasting friendships. Your literary tastes above 
all means cultivate; and write , and write , and write , no mat¬ 
ter how poorly it reads. You will be improving your powers of 
expression; also seek to employ new words to increase your 
vocabulary. Literature is worth living for when made a means 
to give expression to the development of the writer’s char¬ 
acter and soul. As mere ornamentation, or to pander to the 
conventionalisms of the day, literature, as a life, is very un¬ 
satisfactory when devoted to such false ends. 
“You may rest assured that even if you do not find congenial 
sympathy for your tastes and occupations, that is no reason 
to feel discouraged over their pursuit. 
‘ Loving! what claim to love has work of mine ? . . . 
I looked beyond the world for truth and beauty: 
Sought, found, and did my duty.’ 
You know the poet? No need to say who said these words. 
“ I have found some beautiful passages in Walt Whitman’s 
prose volume to read you. ... I feel as if I had lost all 
my thoughts and, until this indigestion stops, I feel I shall be 
unable to think. I have not read lately; to pass the time I 
mended some stockings for want of something else to do. I 
read what George Sand said on this subject only a few days 
ago: ‘ Sewing is the work of female captivity.’ I had come 
to the same conclusion before reading the passage -— when 
my mind was too weak for anything else, I took to sew¬ 
ing, and I think this the state of the great mass of female 
minds.” 
In spite of her intense love of independence and her ad¬ 
vanced thought Mrs. Michael was always essentially and 
delightfully feminine. Her love for nature and all beautiful 
things found expression in many of her essays in verse, nota¬ 
bly in a little prose poem which describes a field bounded by 
“stately groves of trees.” It thus concludes: — 
