Article October 6, 1945 Issue

Walling Up the Old

HELENA ALLMAN

A Student of literature was recently studying Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem, "The Chambered Nautilus." As she read of the progress of the nautilus from one tiny cell to a larger one as he outgrew the last, she was struck by the fact that the beauty of the shell resulted from the little animal's walling up the old and going straight forward to the newer and larger home.

Seeking an interpretation, she was reminded of Mary Baker Eddy's statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 323,324): "Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear,—this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony." As a correlative, the verse from Isaiah came to her mind (43: 18): "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old."

It had been difficult for her to wall up the old and not to cast wishful backward glances at what might have been, although she was rapidly growing and dwelling in a larger "cell." A beautiful healing of grief at the passing of a loved one had been hers, yet there was the temptation not to wall up the old dwelling but to look wishfully back to what might have been. New fields of employment had been presented for consideration, following an enlarged sense of Life, but still she seemed to want to keep contact with the old, in case she might have to go back to old conditions.

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