| |
| |
Letter of Mrs. Ole Bull to Mary Hale, April 1895
He worked continually and faithfully; his lectures requiring on his part reading and careful thought.
His teaching in class was so clear and gentle in spirit that I felt it to be perhaps the best of all his work. It has served to call together earnest people among those who came to him, and I hope that a center of work for him in this country may be the permanent result of it all. He is tired now, but rest will soon make all the positive good apparent to him. The real character of the man and his work are now known to many and at any time may be resumed, as there are those who would always gladly welcome and assist him.... All who know him love the beauty of his life and he brings with him the realization of all good and noble endeavor Godward.
|
|
| |
Letter of Sarah Ellen Waldo to Miss Hamlen, April 23,1895
You will be pleased to know that the Swami has returned and will hold a class tomorrow as usual, He asked me to notify the members of the classes, so as I fortunately had the list of the Wed. class [of which she had charge], that you sent me last week, I was able to do so. If you will kindly let me have the lists of the Sat. & Mon. classes, I will send them postals too. I will be over early tomorrow morning.
Yours sincerely,
S.E.W.
|
|
| |
Letter of Ella Wheeler Wilcox to Kate Tannatt Woods. May 1895
I was listening to V this morning an hour. How honored by fate you must feel to have been allowed to be of service to this Great Soul. I believe him to be a re-incarnation of some great Spirit -- perhaps Buddha, perhaps Christ. He is so simple -- so sincere, so pure, so unselfish. To have listened to him all winter is the greatest privilege life has offered me. It would be surprising to me that people could misunderstand or malign such a soul if I did not know how Buddha and Christ were persecuted and lied about by small inferiors. His discourse this morning was most uplifting -- his mere PRESENCE is that. His absolute sinking of SELF is what I like. I am so tired of people who place the capital “I” before truth -- and God. “To do good for good’s sake” -- with no expectation or desire of reward, and never to speak of what we have done -- but to keep on working for the love of doing God’s work-is Vivekananda’s grand philosophy of life. He always make me ashamed that I have even thought for one moment I was burdened or that I ever spoke of any good act of my own.
|
|
| |
Letter of Miss MacLeod to Miss McKinley
August 31, 1899
My dear Miss McKinley--
Your letter this morning was a great pleasure to our household. We should be so pleased if you and your sister will stop over with us a day and night on your way home--If you will let me know the date, I will arrange to have a free place for you and to meet you at the Station Binnewater: four miles off. You can take a train at Boston for Kingston--changing at Albany--and at Kingston take a train to Binnewater--I think the best train leaving Boston is at 11 P.M. Of course if you are in or near New York--we are very accessible, being 3 hours by train from there.
If you have never taken the [boat] trip on the Hudson River, it is well worth the day given to it--leaving New York at 9--to Kingston--arriving at Binnewater at 4:30.
Swamiji is delighted at the thought of seeing you and your sister.
|
|
| |
Letter of Mrs. Ole Bull to Lady Henry Somerset.
He gave ....a course of ...lectures before the Ethical Association to large audiences, and the Ramabai people attacked his utterances in print. His side was fully sustained; but BOTH sides are to my mind in the right, and should be harmonized in the sprit of Max Muller. The estimate against Vivekananda has been serious because of remarks repeated from Mozoomdar, Lyman Abbott and Prof Estlin Carpenter, remarks that have come directly to me, and from others as well as these. The fact that V. has smoked for years and has at lunches and dinners a few times tasted wine (not with men alone) with the impulsive combative nature of the man -- in large part his own fault as I tell him -- and in part the prejudice of creed and custom against any oriental not a converted Christian, have contributed to this prejudice which had reached me before I knew him. Clergymen, both smokers and drinkers, have spoken to me most sharply of him, the most serious scandals unreservedly repeated in Brooklyn by the Ramabai people were met and turned to his credit, as the friends quoted against him wrote that his presence had been a benediction to old and young of their house ....
The essentials of his order, chastity and poverty, his single purpose in life in these respects, are established to my own satisfaction; and instances of practical help to others as the outcome thereof .... He has made for himself many friends here whose homes and hearts are open to him and his ideals. So far, I gave not been able to come upon a single exception to the contrary among the men and women who have known him intimately.
|
|
|
|
