Revisiting the Earth   By: James Langdon Hill

BY JAMES L. HILL, D.D.

Author of "The Immortal Seven," "The Scholar's Larger Life," "The Worst Boys in Town," "Favorites of History," "The Century's Capstone," "Memory Comforting Sorrow," "A Crowning Achievement," etc.

" We know not the future, the past we have felt "

RICHARD G. BADGER THE GORHAM PRESS BOSTON

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY RICHARD G. BADGER

All Rights Reserved

Made in the United States of America

The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.

"' Tis sweet to remember! I would not forego The charm which the Past o'er the Present can thro "

[Illustration: THE LITTLE SEMINARY OF LETTERS]

CONTENTS

I. REVISITING THE EARTH

II. THE PICTURE LAND OF THE HEART

III. THE DEAREST SPOT ON EARTH TO ME

IV. THE LAND OF USED TO BE

V. SEEN THROUGH THE LONG VISTA OF DEPARTED YEARS

VI. WHERE WE PLAYED MUMBLE THE PEG

VII. THE SCENE OF THE SCHOOL FIGHTS

VIII. TOUCHING A LONG SLUMBERING CHORD

IX. WHAT HAD BECOME OF THE OLD ECCENTRICITIES

X. TO SEE AND FEEL THE PAST

XI. A RETURN TO ONE'S HOLY LAND

XII. LOOKING UP THE SONS OF WELL REMEMBERED MOTHERS

XIII. THINGS THAT HAD PASSED AWAY "STILL LIVE"

XIV. WHERE A VISITANT SEES MORE THAN A RESIDENT

XV. WHERE I MET MYSELF

XVI. RETRACING THE OLD PATHS

XVII. GOING BACK TO MY PADAN ARAM

XVIII. A NEW KNOCK AT AN OLD DOOR

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE LITTLE SEMINARY OF LETTERS

"I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER THE HOUSE WHERE I WAS BORN"

THE LITTLE SANCTUARY

PARADISE LOST BEFORE THE SALEM FIRE

PARADISE REGAINED AFTER THE CONFLAGRATION

THE MEETING OF "THE SENATE"

A SEAT OF LEARNING FULL OF MEMORIES

THE GROUNDS OF THE BELOVED COLLEGE

THE GREATEST PLEASURE GIVEN TO MAN

REVISITING THE EARTH

CHAPTER I

REVISITING THE EARTH

To revisit the earth after one's departure from it has always been a common wish among men. The frequency with which this desire is expressed in biographies and in literature, keeps the project alive, and works it to the front in one's plans. Benjamin Franklin presents the thought in such attractive dress that we incline to adopt it for a programme. There is one item in his proposition that calls for argument at the bar of public opinion. It touches the length of the interval that should be suffered to elapse before the visit is made. So rapid is the growth, so radical are the changes, that if one's reappearance is too long delayed he would recognize nothing in the new conditions. He might as well set himself down in some other unfamiliar place. The postponement should not exceed a third of a century. It is his world that a man wants to see, and each one has his own. His antecedents and experiences have given to it a distinctive character.

To Open Books that are Sealed

On a golden day the thought came to me unbidden, I have seen three and thirty years rise and fall since I have viewed the identical spots that I would care most to look upon. Instantly I made the resolve, I will visit, in the first eight weeks of summer, every place in which I have lived or loved or labored. I ascertained, in advance, the name of some kindly disposed person at each point in my itinerary, who could identify the site of the house in which I lived, if it is not still standing, also of the school and church that I attended. The letter I had written was handed in one case to the editor of the local paper, who featured it, in his columns, asking for the names of persons now living who remembered me. Here is plainly seen an insuperable objection to waiting Ben Franklin's interval of one hundred years before revisiting the earth. This correspondence, which contributed immeasurably to the pleasure and profit of the project, ought to be undertaken, while there are two parties to conduct it. Where one's coming is expected and welcomed he passes at once into the right relations to the place, also into the atmosphere he desires.

Let Me Drop a Hint Here Like a Seed