BELLS AT EVENING AND OTHER VERSES BY FRANCES J. CROSBY WITH
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY ROBERT LOWRY, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. FRANCES
JANE CROSBY, the daughter of John and Mercy Crosby, was born in
South East, Putnam County, New York, March 24, 1820. Her home was
in a little valley, through which ran a branch of the Croton River.
The murmur of the flowing water was the music of her earliest
childhood. Her fancy reveled in the silvery tones that rose
incessantly from the humble brook. They spoke to her in a language
which she could understand, and she learned to translate them into
her own vernacular. The dancing measures of the little stream still
linger sweetly in her memory. When she was only six weeks old an
affection of the eyes demanded medical treatment. Either from lack
of accurate diagnosis, or from the opera- tion of causes beyond the
reach of ordinary skill, the remedies applied failed to accomplish
the de- sired end, and her sense of sight entirely disappeared.
Happily for her peace of mind, this loss of vision came upon her at
so early an age that she was relieved of those violent and painful
con- trasts which would have been her lot if this misfortune had
overtaken her in later years. Indeed so utterly foreign to her is
our world of sight, she does not feel the loss of what practically
never was in her possession. A calamity which would be regarded by
us as beyond all compensation she looks upon as one of the
commonplaces of her normal condition. It is pathetic to hear her
gentle but earnest protest when tender sympathies are expended upon
her by honestly commiserating friends but we cannot but admire the
beautiful contentment with which she accepts her place in life, and
evenexpresses a preference for what to us would be only an
unmitigated misfortune. Her childhood was a period of unalloyed
delight. Her happy temperament threw sunshine over all her
surroundings. She discovered in time that therewas a sight-world in
which she had no part, but no knowledge of that deprivation could
affect the elasticity of her spirits. f As if to give notice to all
persons that they need not waste any con- dolements on her, she
wrote, at the age of eight years, the following statement of the
situation as she viewed it i O what a happy soul am I Although I
cannot see, I am resolved that in this world Contented I will be
How many blessings I enjoy That other people dont To weep and sigh
because Im blind, I cannot, and I wont. The poetry in this childish
effusion may not be of the highest order, but the it philosophy
contains is worthy of general adoption. When she was about nine
years old she was taken by her parents to Ridgefield, Conn., where
the family remained four years. After the death of her father her
opportunities for mental improvement were in a degree
interrupted...
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