Eliza Lee Cabot Follen

Eliza Lee Cabot was born in Boston, August 15, 1787, the fifth of thirteen children in the prominent Cabot family of that city. She was the daughter of Samuel Cabot,^[2] and Sarah Barrett Cabot.^[3]

She was well-educated.^[3]

When Samuel died in 1819, ten years after her mother had died, Eliza Cabot and her two sisters established a household, and she developed a large circle of friends with literary and religious interests. Her friends included William Ellery Channing and Henry Ware. Within this circle, she co-founded a Sunday school affiliated with the Federal Street Church.^[3]

Catharine Sedgwick introduced her to the educator Charles Follen. Nine years her junior, he initially became Eliza Cabot's protégé. In 1828, after his betrothed in Germany declined to emigrate to the United States, Eliza and Charles married.^[4] He perished on board the Lexington, which was burnt on Long Island Sound, January 13, 1840.^[2]

 

After Charles's death, Follen educated their only son, Charles Christopher (born 1830),^[3] whom, with other pupils, she fitted for Harvard University. An intimate friend of Channing, she was a zealous opponent of slavery.

Follen published the writings of François Fénelon, and of her husband. Her writings also included: The Skeptic (1835), Sketches of Married Life (1838), and From Little Songs, for Little Boys and Girls (Boston: Whittemore, Niles and Hall; Milwaukie: A. Whittemore & Co., 1856). She edited two Sunday school publications,^[5] the Christian Teacher's Manual (1828–1830) and the Child's Friend (1843–1850).^[3]

She was a voluminous writer. Her poems were first published at Boston (Crosby & Co.), 1839, and while she was in England, she issued another volume for children's use, entitled The Lark and the Linnet, in 1854. Both volumes also contain some translations from the German, and versions of a few Psalms. Her best known hymns are:^[2]

• "How sweet to be allowed to pray". (Resignation.) Appeared in the Christian Disciple, September 1818, and in her Poems, 1839, page 116, in four stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, "Thy will be done."
• "How sweet upon this sacred day". (Sunday.) In her Poems, 1839, pages 113–114, in six stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "Sabbath Day." It previously appeared in Sabbath Recreations, 1829.
• "Lord, deliver, Thou canst save". (Prayer for the Slave.) Found in Songs of the Free, 1836; but is not given in her Poems, 1839. In John Greenleaf Adams and Edwin Hubbell Chapin's Hymns for Christian devotion: especially adapted to the Universalist denomination, Boston, 1846, it is Number 802, in five stanzas of 4 lines. In common with Number 2, it has found acceptance outside Unitarian collections.
• "God, Thou art good, each perfumed flower". This is the original of J. H. Gurney's hymn, "Yes, God is good". There is some obscurity about the text. It is found in her Hymns for Children, Boston, 1825, beginning, "God is good, each perfumed flower," and this obvious misprint (which destroys the metre) was usually copied in later books. It is also given with the same first line as an original piece, never before published, and signed "E. L. C." (initials of Mrs. Follen's maiden name), in Emily Taylor's Sabbath Recreations, Wellington, Salop, 1826, page 203. This suggests that it was printed in the American book after the manuscript was posted to England. Follen may have written at first "Yes, God is good," but this cannot now be determined. It begins, "God, Thou art good," in her Poems, 1839, page 119, and in her verses, The Lark and the Linnet, 1854, and in each case is in six stanzas of 4 1ines, with the title, "God is Good."
• "Will God, Who made the air and sea". (A Child's Prayer.) Given in her Poems, 1839, page 164, in seven stanzas of 4 1ines. In Dr. Henry Allon's Children's Worship, 1878, Number 212, it is abbreviated to four stanzas (i.-iv.), and attributed to "H. Bateman" in error.

Follen died at Brookline, Massachusetts, January 26, 1860.^[2]

• Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Follen, Charles Theodore Christian" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
• "Follen, Charles" . The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
• "Follen, Eliza Lee (Cabot)" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
• "Follen, Eliza Lee (Cabot)" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
•   This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Julian, John (1892). A Dictionary of Hymnology: Setting Forth the Origin and History of Christian Hymns of All Ages and Nations, with Special Reference to Those Contained in the Hymn Books of English-speaking Countries and Now in Common Use (Public domain ed.). Murray.
•   This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Putnam, Alfred Porter (1875). Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith: Being Selections of Hymns and Other Sacred Poems of the Liberal Church in America, with Biographical Sketches of the Writers, and with Historical and Illustrative Notes (Public domain ed.). Roberts.

• Hannan, Caryn (January 1, 2008). Massachusetts Biographical Dictionary. State History Publications. ISBN 978-1-878592-66-8.

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eliza Lee Cabot Follen.

• Works by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Eliza Lee Cabot Follen at the Internet Archive