ART STUDIES.--REMOVAL TO GROTON.--MEETING WITH HARRIET MARTINEAU.--DEATH
OF MR. FULLER.--DEVOTION TO HER FAMILY.
Margaret's enthusiasm for art was in some measure the result of her
study of Goethe. Yet she had in herself a love of the beautiful, and a
sense of its office in life, which would naturally have led her far in
the direction in which this great master gave her so strong an
impulsion. In her multifarious reading she gave much time to the
literature of art, and in those days had read everything that related to
Michael Angelo and Raphael, Quatremère de Quincy, Condivi, Vasari,
Benvenuto Cellini, and others. The masters themselves she studied in the
casts of the Boston Athenæum, in the Brimmer Collection of Engravings,
and in the contents of certain portfolios which a much-esteemed friend
placed at her service, and which contained all the designs of Michael
and Raphael.
The delight which Margaret felt in these studies demanded the sympathy
of her elect associates, and Mr. Emerson remembers certain months as
having been "colored with the genius of these Italians." In 1839 Mr.
Allston's numerous works were collected for a public exhibition which
drew to Boston lovers of art from many distant places. In the same year
some sculptures of Greenough and Crawford were added to the attractions
of the Boston Athenæum.
In Margaret's appreciation of these works, if we may believe Mr.
Emerson, a certain fanciful interpretation of her own sometimes took the
place of a just estimate of artistic values. Yet he found her opinion
worthy of attention, as evincing her real love of beautiful things, and
her great desire to understand the high significance of art. He makes
some quotations from her notes on the Athenæum Gallery of sculpture in
1840.
Here she finds marble busts of Byron and Napoleon. The first, with all
its beauty, appears to her "sultry, stern, all-craving, all-commanding,"
and expressive of something which accounts for what she calls "the grand
failure of his scheme of existence." The head of Napoleon is, she says,
not only stern but ruthless. "Yet this ruthlessness excites no aversion.
The artist has caught its true character, and given us here the Attila,
the instrument of fate to serve a purpose not his own." She groups the
poet and the warrior together as having, "the one in letters, the other
in arms, represented more fully than any other the tendency of their
time; [they] more than any other gave it a chance for reaction." Near
these she finds a head of the poet Ennius, and busts also of Edward
Everett, Washington Allston, and Daniel Webster. Her comment upon this
juxtaposition is interesting.
"Yet even near the Ennius and Napoleon our American men look worthy to
be perpetuated in marble or bronze, if it were only for their air of
calm, unpretending sagacity."
Mr. Henry James, Jr., writing of Nathaniel Hawthorne, speaks of the
Massachusetts of forty or more years ago as poor in its æsthetic
resources. Works of art indeed were then few in number, and decorative
industry, in its present extent, was not dreamed of. But in the
intellectual form of appreciative criticism the Boston of that day was
richer than the city of our own time. The first stage of culture is
cultivation, and the art lovers of that day had sowed the seed of
careful study, and were intent upon its growth and ripening. If
possession is nine points of the law, as it is acknowledged to be, the
knowledge of values may be said to be nine points of possession, and
Margaret and her friends, with their knowledge of the import of art,
and with their trained and careful observation of its outward forms, had
a richer feast in the casts and engravings of that time than can be
enjoyed to-day by the amateur, who, with a _bric-a-brac_ taste and
_blasé_ feeling, haunts the picture-shops of our large cities, or treads
the galleries in which the majestic ghosts of earnest times rebuke his
flippant frivolity.
We have lingered over these records of Margaret's brilliant youth,
because their prophecies aid us greatly in the interpretation of her
later life. The inspired maiden of these letters and journals is very
unlike the "Miss Fuller" who in those very days was sometimes quoted as
the very embodiment of all that is ungraceful and unfeminine. How little
were the beauties of her mind, the graces of her character, guessed at
or sought for by those who saw in her unlikeness to the popular or
fashionable type of the time matter only for derisive comment!
It may not be unimportant for us here to examine a little the
_rationale_ of Margaret's position, and inquire whether the trait which
occasioned so much animadversion was not the concomitant of one of
Margaret's most valuable qualities. This we should call a belief in her
own moral and intellectual power, which impelled her to examine and
decide all questions for herself, and which enabled her to accomplish
many a brave work and sacrifice. This sense of her own power was
answered by the common confession of weakness which then was, and still
is, a part of the received creed of women on the level of good society.
Did not the prone and slavish attitude of these women appear to Margaret
as fatal to character as it really is?
"I am only a woman," was a remark often heard in that day, as in this,
from women to whom that "only" was not to be permitted! Only the
guardian of the beginning of life, only the sharer in all its duties and
inspirations? Culture and Christianity recognized as much as this, but
the doctrine still remained an abstract one, and equal rights were
scarcely thought of as a corollary to equal duties. Margaret never saw,
though she foresaw, the awakening and recognition of the new womanhood
which is already changing the aspect of civilized society. An eccentric
in her own despite, she had dared assume her full height, and to demand
her proper place. Her position was as exceptional as was her genius.
From the isolation of her superiority, was it wonderful that she should
consider it more absolute than it really was?
This exaggerated sense of power is perhaps nothing more than the
intensification of consciousness which certain exigencies will awaken in
those who meet them with a special work to do and a special gift to do
it with. It must be remembered that Margaret's self-esteem did not
really involve any disesteem of others. She honored in all their best
traits, and her only ground of quarrel with humanity at large was its
derogation from its own dignity, its neglect of its own best interests.
Such a sense of human value as she possessed was truly a Christian gift,
and it was in virtue of this that she was able to impart such
exhilaration and hopefulness to those who were content to learn of her.
But here, in our chronicle, the early morning hours are already over.
The inward conquest which was sealed by the sunbeam of that "sallow"
November day becomes the prelude to an outward struggle with
difficulties which tasked to the utmost the strength acquired by our
neophyte through prayer and study.
In the spring of 1833 Margaret found herself obliged to leave the
academic shades of Cambridge for the country retirement of Groton. Her
father, wearied with a long practice of the law, had removed his
residence to the latter place, intending to devote his later years to
literary labor and the education of his younger children. To Margaret
this change was unwelcome, and the result showed it, at a later day, to
have been unfortunate for the family. She did not, however, take here
the position of a malcontent, but that of one who, finding herself
removed from congenial surroundings, knows how to summon to her aid the
hosts of noble minds with which study has made her familiar. Her German
books go with her, and Goethe, Schiller, and Jean Paul solace her lonely
hours. She reads works on architecture, and books of travel in Italy,
while sympathy with her father's pursuits leads her to interest herself
in American history, concerning which he had collected much information
with a view to historical composition.
We find her also engaged in tuition. She has four pupils, probably the
younger children of the family, and gives lessons in three languages
five days in the week, besides teaching geography and history. She has
much needlework to do, and the ill-health of her mother and grandmother
brings additional cares. The course of study which she has marked out
for herself can only be pursued, she says, on three evenings in the
week, and at chance hours in the day. It includes a careful perusal of
Alfieri's writings and an examination into the evidences of the
Christian religion. To this she is impelled by "distressing sceptical
notions" of her own, and by the doubts awakened in her mind by the
arguments of infidels and of deists, some of whom are numbered among her
friends.
The following letter, addressed by Margaret to a much-admired friend,
will give us some idea of the playful mood which relieved her days of
serious application.
"GROTON, 1834.
"TO MRS. ALMIRA B.
"Are you not ashamed, O most friendshipless clergywoman! not to
have enlivened my long seclusion by one line? Does the author of
the 'lecture delivered with much applause before the Brooklyn
Lyceum' despise and wish to cast off the author of 'essays
contumeliously rejected by that respected publication, the
"Christian Examiner"?' That a little success should have such power
to steel the female heart to base ingratitude! O Ally! Ally! wilt
thou forget that it was I (in happier hours thou hast full oft
averred it) who first fanned the spark of thy ambition into flame?
Think'st thou that thou owest naught to those long sweeps over the
inexpressive realities of literature, when thou wast obliged to
trust to my support, thy own opinions as yet scarce budding from
thy heels or shoulders? Dost thou forget--but my emotions will not
permit me to pursue the subject; surely I must have jogged your
conscience sufficiently. I shall follow the instructions of the
great Goethe, and, having in some degree vented my feelings,
address you as if you were what you ought to be. Still remains
enveloped in mystery the reason why neither you nor my reverend
friend came to bid me good-by before I left your city, according to
promise. I suspected the waiter at the time of having intercepted
your card; but your long venomous silence has obliged me to acquit
him. I had treasured up sundry little anecdotes touching my journey
homeward, which, if related with dramatic skill, might excite a
smile on your face, O laughter-loving blue-stocking! I returned
home under the protection of a Mr. Fullerton, fresh from London and
Paris, who gave me an entirely new view of continental affairs. He
assured me that the German Prince[A] was an ignorant pretender, in
the face of my assurances that I had read and greatly admired his
writings, and gave me a contemptuous description of Waldo Emerson
_dining in boots_ at Timothy Wiggin's, _absolument à faire mourir_!
All his sayings were exquisite. And then a _sui generis mother_
whom I met with on board the steamboat. All my pretty pictures are
blotted out by the rude hand of Time: verily this checking of
speech is dangerous. If all the matter I have been preserving for
various persons is in my head, packed away, distributed among the
various organs, how immensely will my head be developed when I
return to the world. This is the first time in my life that I have
known what it is to have nobody to speak to, _c'est à dire_, of my
own peculiar little fancies. I bear it with strange philosophy, but
I do wish to be written to. I will tell you how I pass my time
without society or exercise. Even till two o'clock, sometimes
later, I pour ideas into the heads of the little Fullers; much runs
out--indeed, I am often reminded of the chapter on home education,
in the 'New Monthly.' But the few drops which remain mightily
gladden the sight of my father. Then I go down-stairs and ask for
my letters from the post; this is my only pleasure, according to
the ideas most people entertain of pleasure. Do you write me an
excellent epistle by return of mail, or I will make your head ache
by a minute account of the way in which the remaining hours are
spent. I have only lately read the 'Female Sovereigns' of your
beloved Mrs. Jameson, and like them better than any of her works.
Her opinions are clearly expressed, sufficiently discriminating,
and her manner unusually simple. I was not dazzled by excess of
artificial light, nor cloyed by spiced and sweetened sentiments. My
love to your revered husband, and four kisses to Edward, two on
your account, one for his beauty, and one abstract kiss, symbol of
my love for all little children in general. Write of him, of
Mr. ----'s sermons, of your likes and dislikes, of any new
characters, sublime or droll, you may have unearthed, and of all
other things I should like.
"Affectionately your country friend, poor and humble
"MARGARET."
In the summer of 1835 a great pleasure and refreshment came to Margaret
in the acquaintance of Miss Martineau, whom she met while on a visit to
her friend, Mrs. Farrar, in Cambridge. In speaking of this first meeting
Margaret says: "I wished to give myself wholly up to receive an
impression of her.... What shrewdness in detecting various shades of
character! Yet what she said of Hannah More and Miss Edgeworth grated
upon my feelings." In a later conversation "the barrier that separates
acquaintance from friendship" was passed, and Margaret felt, beneath the
sharpness of her companion's criticism, the presence of a truly human
heart.
The two ladies went to church together, and the minister prayed "for our
friends." Margaret was moved by this to offer a special prayer for Miss
Martineau, which so impressed itself upon her mind that she was able to
write it down. We quote the part of it which most particularly refers to
her new friend:--
"May her path be guarded, and blessed. May her noble mind be kept
firmly poised in its native truth, unsullied by prejudice or error, and
strong to resist whatever outwardly or inwardly shall war against its
high vocation. May each day bring to this generous seeker new riches of
true philosophy and of Divine love. And, amidst all trials, give her to
know and feel that thou, the All-sufficing, art with her, leading her on
through eternity to likeness of thyself."
The change of base which, years after this time, transformed Miss
Martineau into an enthusiastic disbeliever would certainly not have
seemed to Margaret an answer to her prayer. But as the doctrine that
"God reveals himself in many ways" was not new to her, and as her
petition includes the Eternities, we may believe that she appreciated
the sincerity of her friend's negations, and anticipated for her, as for
herself, a later vision of the Celestial City, whose brightness should
rise victorious above the mists of speculative doubt.
A serious illness intervened at this time, brought on, one might think,
by the intense action of Margaret's brain, stimulated by her manifold
and unremitting labors. For nine days and nights she suffered from
fever, accompanied by agonizing pain in her head. Her beloved mother was
at her bedside day and night. Her father, usually so reserved in
expressions of affection, was moved by the near prospect of her death
to say to her: "My dear, I have been thinking of you in the night, and I
cannot remember that you have any _faults_. You have defects, of course,
as all mortals have, but I do not know that you have a single fault."
These words were intended by him as a _viaticum_ for her, but they were
really to be a legacy of love to his favorite child.
Margaret herself anticipated death with calmness, and, in view of the
struggles and disappointments of life, with willingness. But the
threatened bolt was to fall upon a head dearer to her than her own. In
the early autumn of the same year her father, after a two days' illness,
fell a victim to cholera.
Margaret's record of the grief which this affliction brought her is very
deep and tender. Her father's image was ever present to her, and seemed
even to follow her to her room, and to look in upon her there. Her most
poignant sorrow was in the thought, suggested to many by similar
afflictions, that she might have kept herself nearer to him in sympathy
and in duty. The altered circumstances of the family, indeed, soon
aroused her to new activities. Mr. Fuller had left no will, and had
somewhat diminished his property by unproductive investments. Margaret
now found new reason to wish that she belonged to the sterner sex,
since, had she been eldest son instead of eldest daughter, she might
have become the administrator of her father's estate and the guardian of
her sister and brothers. She regretted her ignorance of such details of
business as are involved in the care of property, and determined to
acquaint herself with them, reflecting that "the same mind which has
made other attainments can in time compass these." In this hour of trial
she seeks and finds relief and support in prayer.
"May God enable me to see the way clear, and not to let down the
intellectual in raising the moral tone of my mind. Difficulties and
duties became distinct the very night after my father's death, and a
solemn prayer was offered then that I might combine what is due to
others with what is due to myself. The spirit of that prayer I shall
constantly endeavor to maintain."
This death, besides the sorrow and perplexity which followed it, brought
to Margaret a disappointment which seemed to her to bar the fulfilment
of her highest hopes. She had for two years been contemplating a visit
to Europe, with a view to the better prosecution of her studies. She had
earned the right to this indulgence beforehand, by assisting in the
education of the younger children of the family. An opportunity now
offered itself of making this journey under the most auspicious
circumstances. Her friends, Mr. and Mrs. Farrar, were about to cross the
ocean, and had invited her to accompany them. Miss Martineau was to be
of the party, and Margaret now saw before her, not only this beloved
companionship, but also the open door which would give her an easy
access to literary society in England, and to the atmosphere of
old-world culture which she so passionately longed to breathe.
With this brilliant vision before her, and with her whole literary
future trembling, as she thought, in the scale, Margaret prayed only
that she might make the right decision. This soon became clear to her,
and she determined, in spite of the entreaties of her family, to remain
with her careworn mother, and not to risk the possibility of encroaching
upon the fund necessary for the education of her brothers and sister.
Of all the crownings of Margaret's life, shall we not most envy her that
of this act of sacrifice? So near to the feast of the gods, she prefers
the fast of duty, and recognizes the claims of family affection as more
imperative than the gratification of any personal taste or ambition.
Margaret does not seem to have been supported in this trial by any sense
of its heroism. Her decision was to her simply a following of the
right, in which she must be content, as she says, to forget herself and
act for the sake of others.
We may all be glad to remember this example, and to refer to it those
who find themselves in a maze of doubt between what they owe to the
cultivation of their own gifts, what to the need and advantage of those
to whom they stand in near relation. Had Margaret at this time forsaken
her darkened household, the difference to its members would have been
very great, and she herself would have added to the number of those
doubting or mistaken souls who have been carried far from the scene of
their true and appointed service by some dream of distinction never to
be fulfilled. In the sequel she was not only justified, but rewarded.
The sacrifice she had made secured the blessings of education to the
younger members of her family. Her prayer that the lifting of her moral
nature might not lower the tone of her intellect was answered, as it was
sure to be, and she found near at hand a field of honor and usefulness
which the brilliant capitals of Europe would not have offered her.
* * * * *
Margaret's remaining days in Groton were passed in assiduous reading,
and her letters and journals make suggestive comments on Goethe,
Shelley, Sir James Mackintosh, Herschel, Wordsworth, and others. Her
scheme of culture was what we should now call encyclopedic, and embraced
most, if not all, departments of human knowledge. If she was at all
mistaken in her scope, it was in this, that she did not sufficiently
appreciate the inevitable limitations of brain power and of bodily
strength. Her impatience of such considerations led her to an habitual
over-use of her brilliant faculties which resulted in an impaired state
of health.
In the autumn of 1836 Margaret left Groton, not without acknowledgment
of "many precious lessons given there in faith, fortitude, self-command,
and unselfish love.
"There, too, in solitude, the mind acquired more power of concentration,
and discerned the beauty of strict method; there, too, more than all,
the heart was awakened to sympathize with the ignorant, to pity the
vulgar, to hope for the seemingly worthless, and to commune with the
Divine Spirit of Creation."