Not failure but low aim is crime
Anne of Avonlea“Not failure but low aim is crime” is the maxim Mrs. Allan offers Anne Shirley when Anne regrets that she has not lived up to the ideals with which she began teaching. Its force lies in redirecting attention from imperfect results to the value of continuing to aspire.
Meaning in Context
Anne admits that she has fallen short in many things and has not done what she intended as a teacher. Mrs. Allan answers that nobody ever fully reaches their ideals, then invokes Lowell’s maxim: “Not failure but low aim is crime.” The reassurance does not deny Anne’s disappointment; it places that disappointment within the ordinary gap between aspiration and achievement.
Ideals and Aspiration
Mrs. Allan develops the maxim into an argument for keeping ideals despite that gap. People must have ideals and try to live by them, she says, even if they never quite succeed. Without ideals, life would be sorry; with them, it becomes grand and great. The expression therefore treats failure as compatible with a meaningful effort, while judging the abandonment of aspiration more severely.
Role in Anne’s Reflection
The maxim gives Anne encouragement without promising that her teaching theories will work. She responds that experience has made her let go of most of those theories, each having failed her at some difficulty. Mrs. Allan’s teasing reference to Anne’s theory on corporal punishment keeps the exchange light, but the maxim’s counsel remains serious: ideals can guide action even when practice requires revision.
