Personality and I<ast Days
activity and good work, and yet with the most noble ideals, the utmost energy and patient endeavor, her life was in many respects a disappointment. Her plans were too elaborate to be carried out with the means at hand, and her ideals too high to be realized in the midst of this strenuous and material age.
Her friend, Miss Harrison, speaking of this calls it a "genius for failure," but her "genius for failure" was rather a hope for success. She was optimistic in the extreme and her aspirations lifted her into an atmosphere of ideality and exaltation which made her oblivious of the realities of life, and forgetful of the difficulties to be encountered. From her Pisgah height she always saw the promised land just ahead. Discouragement was a word which had no meaning for her. The righteousness of the undertaking was to her an assurance of attainment and her energy was equal to the largest possible demand.
It is sad to think that aspiration and hope, faithful labor, and self-sacrifice must so often be unable to reach the goal sought. The superficial pronounce the word "failure" with contempt when a clearer judgment and better understanding of spiritual reality would have led them to bow down in generous recognition of the lofty endeavor.
She was a democrat of the democrats, and her interest was confined to no class or condition of men or women, but wherever
