LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE.--FRIENDSHIP OF DR. HEDGE AND JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.
Dr. Hedge, a life-long friend of Margaret, has given a very interesting
sketch of her in her girlhood. He first met her when he was a student at
Harvard, and she a maiden of thirteen, in her father's house at
Cambridge. Her precocity, mental and physical, was such that she passed
for a much older person, and had already a recognized place in society.
She was at this time in blooming and vigorous health, with a tendency to
over-stoutness, which, the Doctor thinks, gave her some trouble. She was
not handsome nor even pretty, but her animated countenance at once made
its own impression, and awakened in those who saw her a desire to know
more of her. Fine hair and teeth, vivacious eyes, and a peculiarly
graceful carriage of the head and neck were points which redeemed her
from the charge of plainness. This face of hers was, indeed, somewhat
problematic in its expression, which carried with it the assurance of
great possibilities, but not the certainty of their fulfilment. Her
conversation was already brilliant and full of interest, with a
satirical turn which became somewhat modified in after life. Dr. Hedge
fixes her stay in the Groton school at the years 1824, 1825, and
mentions her indulgence in sarcasm as a source of trouble to her in a
school earlier attended, that of Dr. Park, of Boston.
In the year 1826 his slight acquaintance with her grew into a friendship
which, as we have said, ended only with her life. During the seven years
that followed he had abundant occasion to note her steady growth and the
intensity of her inner life. This was with her, as with most young
persons, "a period of romance and of dreams, of yearning and of
passion." He thinks that she did not at this time pursue any systematic
study. "She read with the heart, and was learning more from social
experience than from books." One leading trait of her life was already
prominent. This was a passionate love of all beauties, both in nature
and in art.
If not corresponding to a scholar's idea of systematic study, Margaret's
pursuit of culture in those years must have been arduous and many-sided.
This we may partly gather from the books named and the themes touched
upon in her correspondence with the beloved teacher who had brought her
such near and tender help in her hour of need. To this lady, in a
letter dated July 11, 1825, Margaret rehearses the routine of her daily
life:--
"I rise a little before five, walk an hour, and then practise on the
piano till seven, when we breakfast. Next I read French, Sismondi's
'Literature of the South of Europe,' till eight, then two or three
lectures in Brown's Philosophy. About half-past nine I go to Mr.
Perkins's school and study Greek till twelve, when, the school being
dismissed, I recite, go home, and practise again till dinner, at two.
Sometimes, if the conversation is very agreeable, I lounge for half an
hour over the dessert, though rarely so lavish of time. Then, when I
can, I read two hours in Italian, but I am often interrupted. At six I
walk or take a drive. Before going to bed I play or sing for half an
hour, and about eleven retire to write a little while in my
journal,--exercises on what I have read, or a series of characteristics
which I am filling up according to advice."
A year later she mentions studying "Madame de Staël, Epictetus, Milton,
Racine, and Castilian ballads, with great delight." She asks her
correspondent whether she would rather be the brilliant De Staël or the
useful Edgeworth. In 1827 we find her occupied with a critical study of
the elder Italian poets. She now mentions Miss Francis (Lydia Maria
Child) as her intended companion in a course of metaphysical study. She
characterizes this lady as "a natural person, a most rare thing in this
age of cant and pretension. Her conversation is charming; she brings all
her powers to bear upon it. Her style is varied, and she has a very
pleasant and spirited way of thinking."
Margaret's published correspondence with her dear teacher ends in 1830,
with these words:--
"My beloved supporter in those sorrowful hours, can I ever forget that
to your treatment in that crisis of youth I owe the true life, the love
of Truth and Honor?"
From these years of pedagogy and of patience we must now pass to the
time when this bud, so full of promise, unfolded into a flower rare and
wondrous.
The story of Margaret's early studies, and the wide reach of her craving
for knowledge, already mark her as a creature of uncommon gifts. A
devourer of books she had been from the start; but books alone could not
content this ardent mind, at once so critical and so creative. She must
also have life at first-hand, and feed her intelligence from its deepest
source. Hence the long story of her friendships, so many and various,
yet so earnest and efficient.
What the chosen associates of this wonderful woman have made public
concerning the interest of her conversation and the value of her
influence tasks to the utmost the believing powers of a time in which
the demon of self-interest seems to unfold himself out of most of the
metamorphic flowers of society. Margaret and her friends might truly
have said, "Our kingdom is not of this world,"--at least, according to
what this world calls kingly. But what imperial power had this
self-poised soul, which could so widely open its doors and so closely
shut them, which could lead in its train the brightest and purest
intelligences, and "bind the sweet influences" of starry souls in the
garland of its happy hours! And here we may say, her kingdom was not
_all_ of this world; for the kingdom of noble thought and affection is
in this world and beyond it, and the real and ideal are at peace within
its bounds.
* * * * *
In the divided task of Margaret's biography it was given to James
Freeman Clarke to speak of that early summer of her life in which these
tender and intimate relations had their first and most fervent
unfolding. The Harvard student of that day was probably a personage very
unlike the present revered pastor of the Church of the Disciples. Yet we
must believe that the one was graciously foreshadowed in the other, and
that Margaret found in him the germ of what the later world has learned
so greatly to respect and admire.
The acquaintance between these two began in 1829, and was furthered by a
family connection which Margaret, in one of her early letters, playfully
characterized as a cousinship in the thirty-seventh degree.
During the four years immediately following, the two young people either
met or corresponded daily. In explaining the origin of this friendship,
Mr. Clarke modestly says:--
"She needed a friend to whom to speak of her studies, to whom to express
the ideas which were dawning and taking shape in her mind. She accepted
me for this friend; and to me it was a gift of the gods, an influence
like no other."
This intercourse was at first on both sides an entertainment sought and
found. In its early stages Margaret characterizes her correspondent as
"a socialist by vocation, a sentimentalist by nature, and a Channing-ite
from force of circumstance and of fashion." Further acquaintance opened
beneath the superficial interest the deeper sources of sympathy, and a
valued letter from Margaret is named by Mr. Clarke as having laid the
foundation of a friendship to which he owed both intellectual
enlightenment and spiritual enlargement. More than for these he thanks
Margaret for having imparted to him an impulse which carried him bravely
forward in what has proved to be the normal direction of his life.
Although destined, after those early years of intimate communion, to
live far apart and in widely different spheres of labor and of interest,
the regard of the two friends never suffered change or diminution.
And here we come upon a governing feature in Margaret's intercourse with
her friends. She had the power of leading those who interested her to a
confidence which unfolded to her the deepest secrets of their life. Now
came in play that unexplained action of one mind upon another which we
call personal magnetism, and which is more distinctly recognized to-day
than in other times as an element in social efficiency. It is this power
which, united with intellectual force, gives leadership to individual
men, and enables the great orator to hold a mighty audience in the
hollow of his hand.
With Margaret at the period we speak of the exercise of this power was
intensive rather than extensive. The circumstances of the time had
something to do with this. Here was a soul whose objects and desires
boldly transcended the sphere of ordinary life. It could neither wholly
contain nor fitly utter itself. Pulpit and platform were then
interdicted to her sex. The mimic stage, had she thought of it, would
have mocked her with its unreality. On single souls, one at a time, she
laid her detaining grasp, and asked what they could receive and give.
Something noble she must perceive in them before she would condescend to
this parley. She did not insist that her friends should possess genius;
but she could only make friends of those who, like herself, were seekers
after the higher life. Worthiness of object commended even mediocrity to
her; but shallow worldliness awakened her contempt.
In the exercise of this discrimination she no doubt sometimes gave
offence. Mr. Clarke acknowledges that she not only seemed, but was,
haughty and supercilious to the multitude, while to the chosen few she
was the very embodiment of tender and true regard.
It must also be acknowledged that this same magnetism which attracted
some persons so strongly was to others as strongly repellent. Where she
was least known this repulsion was most felt. It yielded to admiration
and esteem where acquaintance went beyond the mere recognition of
Margaret's air and manner, which made a stranger a little uncertain
whether he would be amicably entertained or subjected to a _reductio ad
absurdum_. As in any community impressions of personality are more
likely to be superficial than thorough, it is probable that a very
general misunderstanding which, at a later day, grew up between Margaret
and the great world of a small New England city had its origin in a
misconstruction of her manner when among strangers, or on the occasion
of a first introduction. To recall this shallow popular judgment of her
is not pleasant, but some mention of it does belong to any summary of
her life. With such friends as she had, she had no reason to look upon
herself as one who was neither understood nor appreciated. Yet her
heart, which instinctively sought the empire of universal love, may have
been grieved at the indifference and dislike which she sometimes
encountered. Those who know how, in some circles, her name became a
watchword for all that was eccentric and pretentious in the womanhood of
her day, will smile or sigh at the contrast between the portraitures of
Margaret given in the volumes of the memoir and the caricature of her
which was current in the mind of the public at large.
These remarks anticipate the pains and distinctions of a later period.
For the present let us confine our attention to the happy days at
Cambridge, which Margaret may not have recognized as such, but which
must have seemed bright to her when contrasted with the years of labor
and anxiety which followed them.
Mr. Clarke tells us that Margaret and he began the study of the German
language in 1832, moved thereunto by Thomas Carlyle's brilliant
exposition of the merits of leading German authors. In three months'
time Margaret had acquired easy command of the language, and within the
year had read the most important works of Goethe and Schiller, with the
writings also of Tieck, Körner, Richter, and Novalis. Extracts from her
letters at this time show that this extensive reading was neither hasty
nor superficial.
She finds herself happier in the companionship of Schiller than in that
of Goethe, of whom she says, "That perfect wisdom and merciless reason
seem cold after those seducing pictures of forms more beautiful than
truth." The "Elective Affinities" suggests to her various critical
questions, but does not carry her away with the sweep of its interest.
From "the immense superiority of Goethe" she finds it a relief to turn
to the simplicity of Novalis, "a wondrous youth, who has written only
one volume," and whose "one-sidedness, imperfection, and glow seem
refreshingly human" to her. Körner becomes a fixed star in the heaven of
her thought. Lessing interests her less. She credits him with the
production of "well conceived and sustained characters and interesting
situations," but not with any profound knowledge of human nature. "I
think him easily followed; strong, but not deep."
This was with Margaret, as Dr. Hedge has well observed, the period of
romance. Her superiority to common individuals appeared in the fact that
she was able to combine with intense personal aspirations and desires a
wide outlook into the destinies of the human race.
We find her, in these very days, "engaged in surveying the level on
which the public mind is poised." She turns from the poetic tragedy and
comedy of life to study, as she says, "the rules of its prose," and to
learn from the talk of common people what elements and modes of thought
go to make up the average American mind. She listens to George Thompson,
the English anti-slavery orator, and is led to say that, if she had been
a man, she should have coveted the gift of eloquence above all others,
and this for the intensity of its effects. She thinks of writing six
historical tragedies, and devises the plan for three of them. Tales of
Hebrew history it is also in her mind to compose. Becoming convinced
that "some fixed opinion on the subject of metaphysics is an essential
aid to systematic culture," she addresses herself to the study of
Fichte and Jacobi, of Brown and Stewart. The first of these appeared to
her incomprehensible. Of the second, she conjectures that his views are
derived from some author whom she has not read. She thinks in good
earnest of writing a life of Goethe, and wishes to visit Europe in order
to collect the material requisite for this. Her appreciation of Dr.
Channing is shown in a warm encomium on his work treating of slavery, of
which she says, "It comes like a breath borne over some solemn sea which
separates us from an island of righteousness."
In summing up his account of this part of Margaret's life, Mr. Clarke
characterizes self-culture as the object in which she was content to
lose sight of all others. Her devotion to this great end was, he says,
"wholly religious, and almost Christian." She was religious in her
recognition of the divine element in human experience, and Christian in
her elevation above the sordid interests of life, and in her devotion to
the highest standards of duty and of destiny. He admits, however, that
her aim, noble as it was, long remained too intensely personal to reach
the absolute generosity required by the Christian rule. This defect made
itself felt outwardly by a certain disesteem of "the vulgar herd," and
in an exaggerated worship of great personalities. Its inner effects
were more serious. To her darling desire for growth and development she
sacrificed "everything but manifest duty." The want of harmony between
her outward circumstances and her inward longings so detained her
thoughts that she was unable to pass beyond the confines of the present
moment, and could not foresee that true growth must bring her, as it
soon did, a great enlargement of influence and relation.