A noble company gathered to develop a society that would create harmony, love, and usefulness. Now I sit on the grave of great hopes.... I look back to see a light that went out from it—small, but bright and pure and true.
ATTRIBUTION:
Rebecca Buffum Spring (1811–1911), U.S. abolitionist and educator. As quoted in Past and Promise, part 2, by Marie Marmo Mullaney (1990).
In a letter to J. L. Kearney dated October 25, 1897. She was remembering Eagleswood, a progressive, coeducational boarding school in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, founded and operated by her and her husband, Marcus Spring, from 1853 to 1868. It eventually became an overwhelming responsibility for them, and they closed it. Also, despite her Quaker upbringing and convictions, they had found it necessary to provide military training for boys.
