Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Vol. II | Page 4

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'Save me from plunging into the depths to learn the worst, or from
being led astray by the winged joys of childish feeling. I pray for truth
in proportion as there is strength to receive.'
* * * * *
'My law is incapable of a charter. I pass all bounds, and cannot do
otherwise. Those whom it seems to me I am to meet again in the Ages,
I meet, soul to soul, now. I have no knowledge of any circumstances
except the degree of affinity.'
* * * * *
'I feel that my impatient nature needs the dark days. I would learn the
art of limitation, without compromise, and act out my faith with a
delicate fidelity. When loneliness becomes too oppressive, I feel Him
drawing me nearer, to be soothed by the smile of an All-Intelligent
Love. He will not permit the freedom essential to growth to be checked.
If I can give myself up to Him, I shall not be too proud, too impetuous,
neither too timid, and fearful of a wound or cloud.'

III.
TRANSCENDENTALISM.

* * * * *
The summer of 1839 saw the full dawn of the Transcendental
movement in New England. The rise of this enthusiasm was as
mysterious as that of any form of revival; and only they who were of
the faith could comprehend how bright was this morning-time of a new
hope. Transcendentalism was an assertion of the inalienable integrity of
man, of the immanence of Divinity in instinct. In part, it was a reaction
against Puritan Orthodoxy; in part, an effect of renewed study of the
ancients, of Oriental Pantheists, of Plato and the Alexandrians, of
Plutarch's Morals, Seneca and Epictetus; in part, the natural product of
the culture of the place and time. On the somewhat stunted stock of
Unitarianism,--whose characteristic dogma was trust in individual
reason as correlative to Supreme Wisdom,--had been grafted German
Idealism, as taught by masters of most various schools,--by Kant and
Jacobi, Fichte and Novalis, Schelling and Hegel, Schleiermacher and
De Wette, by Madame de Stael, Cousin, Coleridge, and Carlyle; and
the result was a vague yet exalting conception of the godlike nature of
the human spirit. Transcendentalism, as viewed by its disciples, was a
pilgrimage from the idolatrous world of creeds and rituals to the temple
of the Living God in the soul. It was a putting to silence of tradition and
formulas, that the Sacred Oracle might be heard through intuitions of
the single-eyed and pure-hearted. Amidst materialists, zealots, and
sceptics, the Transcendentalist believed in perpetual inspiration, the
miraculous power of will, and a birthright to universal good. He sought
to hold communion face to face with the unnameable Spirit of his spirit,
and gave himself up to the embrace of nature's beautiful joy, as a babe
seeks the breast of a mother. To him the curse seemed past; and love
was without fear. "All mine is thine" sounded forth to him in ceaseless
benediction, from flowers and stars, through the poetry, art, heroism of
all ages, in the aspirations of his own genius, and the budding promise
of the time. His work was to be faithful, as all saints, sages, and lovers
of man had been, to Truth, as the very Word of God. His maxims
were,--"Trust, dare and be; infinite good is ready for your asking; seek
and find. All that your fellows can claim or need is that you should
become, in fact, your highest self; fulfil, then, your ideal." Hence,
among the strong, withdrawal to private study and contemplation, that
they might be "alone with the Alone;" solemn yet glad devotedness to

the Divine leadings in the inmost will; calm concentration of thought to
wait for and receive wisdom; dignified independence, stern yet sweet,
of fashion and public opinion; honest originality of speech and conduct,
exempt alike from apology or dictation, from servility or scorn. Hence,
too, among the weak, whimsies, affectation, rude disregard of
proprieties, slothful neglect of common duties, surrender to the claims
of natural appetite, self-indulgence, self-absorption, and self-idolatry.
By their very posture of mind, as seekers of the new, the
Transcendentalists were critics and "come-outers" from the old. Neither
the church, the state, the college, society, nor even reform associations,
had a hold upon their hearts. The past might be well enough for those
who, without make-belief, could yet put faith in common dogmas and
usages; but for them the matin-bells of a new day were chiming, and
the herald-trump of freedom was heard upon the mountains. Hence,
leaving ecclesiastical organizations, political parties, and familiar
circles, which to them were brown with drought, they sought in covert
nooks of friendship for running waters, and fruit from the tree of life.
The journal, the letter, became of greater worth than