| PAGE | |
| [CHAPTER I.] | |
Childhood and Early Youth.—School-days | |
| [CHAPTER II.] | |
Life in Cambridge.—Friendship of Dr. Hedge and James Freeman Clarke | |
| [CHAPTER III.] | |
Religious Beliefs.—Margaret's Early Critics.—First Acquaintance withMr. Emerson | |
| [CHAPTER IV.] | |
Art Studies.—Removal to Groton.—Meeting with Harriet Martineau.—Deathof Mr. Fuller.—Devotion to her Family | |
| [CHAPTER V.] | |
Winter in Boston.—A Season of Severe Labor.—Connection withGreen-Street School, Providence, R. I.—Editorship of the"Dial."—Margaret's estimate of Allston's pictures | |
| [CHAPTER VI.] | |
William Henry Channing's portrait of Margaret.—TranscendentalDays.—Brook Farm.—Margaret's visits there | |
| [CHAPTER VII.] | |
Margaret's love of children.—Visit to Concord after the death of WaldoEmerson.—Conversations in Boston.—Summer on the Lakes | |
| [CHAPTER VIII.] | |
Farewell to Boston.—Engagement to write for the "New YorkTribune."—Margaret in her new surroundings.—Mr. Greeley's opinion ofMargaret's work.—Her estimate of George Sand | |
| [CHAPTER IX.] | |
Margaret's residence at the Greeley mansion.—Appearance in New Yorksociety.—Visits to women imprisoned at Sing Sing and on Blackwell'sIsland.—Letters to her brothers.—"Woman in the NineteenthCentury."—Essay on American Literature.—View of contemporary Authors | |
| [CHAPTER X.] | |
Ocean voyage.—Arrival at Liverpool.—The LakeCountry.—Wordsworth.—Miss Martineau.—Edinburgh.—De Quincey.—Mary,Queen of Scots.—Night on Ben Lomond.—James Martineau.—William J.Fox.—London.—Joanna Baillie.—Mazzini.—Thomas Carlyle.—Margaret'simpressions of him.—His estimate of her | |
| [CHAPTER XI.] | |
Paris.—Margaret's reception there.—GeorgeSand.—Chopin.—Rachel.—Lamennais.—Béranger.—Chamber ofDeputies.—Berryer.—Ball at the Tuileries.—Italian Opera.—AlexandreVattemare.—Schools and Reformatories.—Journey toMarseilles.—Genoa.—Leghorn.—Naples.—Rome. | |
| [CHAPTER XII.] | |
Margaret's first days in Rome.—Antiquities.—Visits to Studios andGalleries.—Her opinions concerning the Old Masters.—[ix]Her sympathy withthe People.—Pope Pius.—Celebration of the Birthday ofRome.—Perugia.—Bologna.—Ravenna.—Venice.—A State Ball on the GrandCanal.—Milan.—Manzoni.—The Italian Lakes.—Parma.—Second visit toFlorence.—Grand Festival | |
| [CHAPTER XIII.] | |
Period of agitation in Rome.—Margaret's zeal for Italian Freedom.—Herreturn to Rome.—Review of the Civic Guard.—Church Fasts andFeasts.—Pope Pius.—The Rainy Season.—Promise of RepresentativeGovernment in Rome.—Celebration of this event.—Mazzini's Letter to thePope.—Beauty of the Spring.—Italy in Revolution.—Popular excitementsin Rome.—Pope Pius deserts the Cause of Freedom.—Margaret leaves Romefor Aquila | |
| [CHAPTER XIV.] | |
Margaret's marriage.—Character of the Marchese Ossoli.—Margaret'sfirst meeting with him.—Reasons for not divulging themarriage.—Aquila.—Rieti.—Birth of Angelo Eugene Ossoli.—Margaret'sreturn to Rome.—Her anxiety about her child.—Flight of Pope Pius.—TheConstitutional Assembly.—The Roman Republic.—Attitude of France.—TheSiege of Rome.—Mazzini.—Princess Belgiojoso.—Margaret's care of theHospitals | |
| [CHAPTER XV.] | |
Siege of Rome.—Margaret's care of the sick and wounded.—Anxiety abouther husband and child.—Battle between the French and Italiantroops.—The Surrender.—Garibaldi's departure.—Margaret joins herhusband at his post.—Angelo's illness.—Letters from friends inAmerica.—Perugia.—Winter in Florence.—Margaret's domesticlife.—Aspect of her future.—Her courage and industry.—Ossoli'saffection for her.—William Henry Hurlbut's reminiscences of themboth.—Last days in Florence.—Farewell visit to the Duomo.—Margaret'sevenings at home.—Horace Sumner.—Margaret [x]as a friend of the people | |
| [CHAPTER XVI.] | |
Margaret turns her face homeward.—Last letter to her mother.—Thebarque "Elizabeth."—Presages and omens.—Death of thecaptain.—Angelo's illness.—The wreck.—The long struggle.—The end | |
| [CHAPTER XVII.] | |
Margaret Fuller's Literary Remains | |
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MARGARET FULLER.
CHAPTER I.
CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YOUTH.—SCHOOL DAYS.
The subject of the following sketch, Sarah Margaret Fuller, has already been most fortunate in her biographers. Cut off herself in the prime of life, she left behind her devoted friends who were still in their full vigor of thought and sentiment. Three of these, James Freeman Clarke, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and William Henry Channing, set their hand, some thirty or more years ago, to the happy task of preserving for posterity their strong personal impressions of her character and influence. With these precious reminiscences were interwoven such extracts from her correspondence and diary as were deemed fittest to supply the outline of her own life and experience.
What, it may be asked, can such biographers have left for others to do? To surpass their work is not to be thought of. But, in the turning[{2}] and perseverance of this planet, present soon becomes past, and that which has been best said asks to be said again. This biography, so rich in its suggestions and so valuable in its details, is already set in a past light by the progress of men and of things. Its theme has lost none of its interest. Nay, it is through the growing interest felt in Margaret and her work that a demand seems to have arisen for a later word about her, which cannot hope to be better or wiser than the words already made public, but which may borrow from them the inspiration for a new study and presentment.
According to the authorities already established, Sarah Margaret Fuller, the child of Timothy Fuller and Margaret Crane, was born at Cambridgeport, near Boston, on the 23d of May, 1810. She has herself given some account of her early life in an autobiographical sketch which forms the prelude to the work already published. Her father, she says, "was a lawyer and a politician," the son of a country clergyman, Harvard-bred both as to his college and his professional studies. She remembers him chiefly as absorbed in the business and interest of his profession, intent upon compassing the support of his family, and achieving such distinction as might prove compatible with that object. Her mother she describes as "one of[{3}] those fair, flower-like natures, which sometimes spring up even beside the most dusty highways of life,—bound by one law with the blue sky, the dew, and the frolic birds." And in the arduous labor of her father's life, his love for this sweet mother "was the green spot on which he stood apart from the commonplaces of a mere bread-winning, bread-bestowing existence."
The case between Margaret and her father is the first to be disposed of in our consideration of her life and character. In the document just quoted from she does not paint him en beau. Here and elsewhere she seems to have been inclined to charge upon him the excessive study which exaggerated her natural precocity of temperament, and the Puritan austerity which brought her ungratified imagination into early conflict with the circumstances and surroundings of her start in life. In a brief preface to the memoir already published, a surviving brother of Margaret characterizes this view of the father as inadequate and unjust.
Margaret herself called her sketch an autobiographical romance, and evidently wrote it at a period of her life in which her personal experience had thrown little light upon the difficulties which parents encounter in the training of their children, and especially in that of their eldest-born.[{4}]