Eliza T. Clapp

Clapp, Eliza Thayer, a resident at Dorchester, Massachusetts, U.S., and author of Words in the Sunday School; and Studies in Religion, 1845, contributed at the request of Ralph W. Emerson three hymns and two poems to The Dial, 1841. From one of the hymns, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines, published in The Dial, July, 1841, and entitled "The future is better than the past," the hymn "All before us lies the way" (Onward with Confidence) is taken. It was given in Hedge & Huntington's Unitarian Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853, and has been repeated in several collections. It is usually attributed to Emerson, but in error. (George Cooke, in Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 1885.) [Rev. Valentine D. Davis, B.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)