Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Vol. II | Page 6

green. These are no winged Mercuries, no silver-sandalled Madonnas.
Listen to "the world's" truth and soberness, and we will show you that
your heart would be as well placed in a hospital, as in these air-born
palaces.
'And thou, priest, seek thy God among the people, and not in the shrine.
The light need not penetrate thine own soul. Thou canst catch the true
inspiration from the eyes of thy auditors. Not the Soul of the World, not
the ever-flowing voice of nature, but the articulate accents of practical
utility, should find thy ear ever ready. Keep always among men, and
consider what they like; for in the silence of thine own breast will be
heard the voices that make men "mad." Why shouldst thou judge of the
consciousness of others by thine own? May not thine own soul have
been made morbid, by retiring too much within? If Jesus of Nazareth
had not fasted and prayed so much alone, the devil could never have
tempted him; if he had observed the public mind more patiently and
carefully, he would have waited till the time was ripe, and the minds of
men prepared for what he had to say. He would thus have escaped the
ignominious death, which so prematurely cut short his "usefulness."
Jewry would thus, gently, soberly, and without disturbance, have been
led to a better course.
'"Children of this generation!"--ye Festuses and Agrippas!--ye are wiser,
we grant, than "the children of light;" yet we advise you to commend to
a higher tribunal those whom much learning, or much love, has made
"mad." For if they stay here, almost will they persuade even you!'
Amidst these meetings of the Transcendentalists it was, that, after years

of separation, I again found Margaret. Of this body she was member by
grace of nature. Her romantic freshness of heart, her craving for the
truth, her self-trust, had prepared her from childhood to be a pioneer in
prairie-land; and her discipline in German schools had given definite
form and tendency to her idealism. Her critical yet aspiring intellect
filled her with longing for germs of positive affirmation in place of the
chaff of thrice-sifted negation; while her æsthetic instinct responded in
accord to the praise of Beauty as the beloved heir of Good and Truth,
whose right it is to reign. On the other hand, strong common-sense
saved her from becoming visionary, while she was too well-read as a
scholar to be caught by conceits, and had been too sternly tried by
sorrow to fall into fanciful effeminacy. It was a pleasing surprise to see
how this friend of earlier days was acknowledged as a peer of the realm,
in this new world of thought. Men,--her superiors in years, fame and
social position,--treated her more with the frankness due from equal to
equal, than the half-condescending deference with which scholars are
wont to adapt themselves to women. They did not talk down to her
standard, nor translate their dialect into popular phrase, but trusted to
her power of interpretation. It was evident that they prized her verdict,
respected her criticism, feared her rebuke, and looked to her as an
umpire. Very observable was it, also, how, in side-talks with her, they
became confidential, seemed to glow and brighten into their best mood,
and poured out in full measure what they but scantily hinted in the
circle at large.

IV.
GENIUS.
* * * * *
It was quite a study to watch the phases through which Margaret passed,
in one of these assemblies. There was something in the air and step
with which she chose her place in the company, betokening an
instinctive sense, that, in intellect, she was of blood royal and needed to
ask no favors. And then she slowly gathered her attention to take in the
significance of the scene. Near-sighted and habitually using an
eye-glass, she rapidly scanned the forms and faces, pausing intently
where the expression of particular heads or groups suggested thought,
and ending her survey with some apt home-thrust to her next neighbors,

as if to establish full _rapport_, and so to become a medium for the
circulating life. Only when thus in magnetic relations with all present,
by a clear impress of their state and place, did she seem prepared to rise
to a higher stage of communion. Then she listened, with ear finely
vibrating to every tone, with all capacities responsive in sympathy, with
a swift and ductile power of appreciation, that made her feel to the
quick the varying moods of different speakers, and yet the while with
coolest self-possession. Now and then a slight smile, flickering over her
countenance, as lightning plays on the surface of a cloud, marked the
inward process whereby she was harmonizing in equilibrium opposing
thoughts. And, as