Philadelphia,
September 1, 1917
II
OCTAVIA HILL
December 3, 1838–August 13, 1912.
“Let us be gentle, because we know so little.”
—Letter to my Fellow-Workers, 1879.
“But, if you let one touch of terror dim your sight, and flinch before the most terrible upheaval of rampant force, or threat; if, for popular favor, or seat at board, or success on platform, you hesitate to speak what you know to be true, then shall your cowardice and your ambition be indeed answerable for consequences which you little dream of.”
—Ibid, 1889.
Many a Browning Society has little to do with Browning, and many a reading circle takes Shakespeare’s name in vain: but in the case of the Octavia Hill Association there is so close a correspondence between the work and the practical idealism of the woman whose name it bears that a study of her career of service to humanity in England and thus throughout the world sheds light upon the organized and incorporated effort in Philadelphia.
Octavia Hill was the eighth daughter among eleven children of James Hill of Peterborough. Her mother was the third wife of Mr. Hill, who inherited his father’s successful business as corn-merchant and upon the proceeds came to grief as a banker. Altruist, reformer and book-lover, the financial panics of 1825 and 1840 were too much for him. Upon his mental and physical collapse, Octavia’s mother took her daughters to a cottage at Finchley, provided by her father, Dr. Southwood Smith, the noted sanitarian.