Page:Democratic Ideals (Olympia Brown).djvu/58

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Personality and Last Days


there was need of help, a call for sympathy, or a cause requiring sacrifice, she was always ready. She wanted to help everybody and instruct everybody. Unfortunately many people do not wish to be instructed, and some cannot be helped. It is the fate of the pioneer to make pleasant paths for others to walk in, and to open doors of opportunity to those who come after them. And Mrs. Colby was a pioneer.

She had the reward of which she said, "The consciousness of giving the world a forward movement along the path of liberty is the highest reward of human effort."

She was essentially a devoted religionist. Adhering to the Congregational church, she yet had an open mind to all the various forms of new thought and wondrous spiritual suggestion of our times. Her feeling was well expressed by the pastor of the Pilgrim Band as they departed in the Mayflower: "God hath more truth yet to break out of His word." More truth, more truth, is ever the desire of the earnest soul. Her cry, like that of Goethe when he died, was ever "more light."