Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Vol. II | Page 9

but merely to afford an avenue for what of liberal
and calm thought might be originated among us, by the wants of
individual minds.' * *
* * * * *
'_April 19, 1840._--Things go on pretty well, but doubtless people will
be disappointed, for they seem to be looking for the Gospel of
Transcendentalism. It may prove as Jouffroy says it was with the
successive French ministries: "The public wants something positive,
and, seeing that such and such persons are excellent at fault-finding, it
raises them to be rulers, when, lo! they have no noble and full Yea, to
match their shrill and bold Nay, and so are pulled down again." Mr.
Emerson knows best what he wants; but he has already said it in
various ways. Yet, this experiment is well worth trying; hearts beat so
high, they must be full of something, and here is a way to breathe it out
quite freely. It is for dear New England that I want this review. For
myself, if I had wished to write a few pages now and then, there were
ways and means enough of disposing of them. But in truth I have not
much to say; for since I have had leisure to look at myself, I find that,
so far from being an original genius, I have not yet learned to think to
any depth, and that the utmost I have done in life has been to form my
character to a certain consistency, cultivate my tastes, and learn to tell
the truth with a little better grace than I did at first. For this the world
will not care much, so I shall hazard a few critical remarks only, or an
unpretending chalk sketch now and then, till I have learned to do
something. There will be beautiful poesies; about prose we know not
yet so well. We shall be the means of publishing the little Charles
Emerson left as a mark of his noble course, and, though it lies in
fragments, all who read will be gainers.'
* * * * *

'1840.--Since the Revolution, there has been little, in the circumstances
of this country, to call out the higher sentiments. The effect of
continued prosperity is the same on nations as on individuals,--it leaves
the nobler faculties undeveloped. The need of bringing out the physical
resources of a vast extent of country, the commercial and political fever
incident to our institutions, tend to fix the eyes of men on what is local
and temporary, on the external advantages of their condition. The
superficial diffusion of knowledge, unless attended by a correspondent
deepening of its sources, is likely to vulgarize rather than to raise the
thought of a nation, depriving them of another sort of education
through sentiments of reverence, and leading the multitude to believe
themselves capable of judging what they but dimly discern. They see a
wide surface, and forget the difference between seeing and knowing. In
this hasty way of thinking and living they traverse so much ground that
they forget that not the sleeping railroad passenger, but the botanist, the
geologist, the poet, really see the country, and that, to the former, "a
miss is as good as a mile." In a word, the tendency of circumstances has
been to make our people superficial, irreverent, and more anxious to get
a living than to live mentally and morally. This tendency is no way
balanced by the slight literary culture common here, which is mostly
English, and consists in a careless reading of publications of the day,
having the same utilitarian tendency with our own proceedings. The
infrequency of acquaintance with any of the great fathers of English
lore marks this state of things.
'New England is now old enough,--some there have leisure enough,--to
look at all this; and the consequence is a violent reaction, in a small
minority, against a mode of culture that rears such fruits. They see that
political freedom does not necessarily produce liberality of mind, nor
freedom in church institutions--vital religion; and, seeing that these
changes cannot be wrought from without inwards, they are trying to
quicken the soul, that they may work from within outwards. Disgusted
with the vulgarity of a commercial aristocracy, they become radicals;
disgusted with the materialistic working of "rational" religion, they
become mystics. They quarrel with all that is, because it is not spiritual
enough. They would, perhaps, be patient if they thought this the mere
sensuality of childhood in our nation, which it might outgrow; but they
think that they see the evil widening, deepening,--not only debasing the

life, but corrupting the thought, of our people, and they feel that if they
know not well what should be done, yet that the duty of every good
man is to utter a