Among these latter appear to be her arrogance and her contemptuous manner toward others less gifted than herself. I have also heard that she could repent of and ask pardon for severe words. In haughtiness and independence of temper, in pride and honesty, and in critical asperity, she was perfectly a Transcendentalist! The "Conversations," which she at one time gave in a select circle at Boston, are spoken of as of the highest interest. Mrs. Emerson can not sufficiently praise her fervent eloquence and the extraordinary affluence of her mind, and—I believe-half reproaches me for not being like her.

Margaret Fuller went to Italy with my friends, the Ss, about two years since, and remained there when they left. A report has now reached this country that she has connected herself with a young man (she herself is no longer young, being upward of forty), and a Fourierist or Socialist marriage, without the external ceremony, is spoken of; certain it is that the marriage remained secret, and that she has a child, a boy. She herself has written about it, and about her maternal joy, but not any thing about her marriage, merely that she shall relate what further concerns her when she returns to America, which will be next year. All this has furnished subject for much conversation among her friends and her enemies. They who loved neither herself nor her turn of mind, believe the worst; but I shall never forget with what zeal one of her friends, Mr. W. R., defended her on one occasion in company, and that merely on the ground that her character repelled every suspicion of any action which might cast a stain upon it. Her friends at Concord-among these the Emersons, Elizabeth H., and a younger sister of Margaret Fuller, married in Concord -seemed perfectly easy with regard to her conduct, and convinced that it will justify itself in the open light of day. This is beautiful.

Margaret Fuller has in her writings asserted the right

of woman to her own free development, and to liberty in many cases where, although conformable to the strictest moral code, it would yet be offensive to many even in this so-called free country. Her friends, and among these the excellent, pure-hearted Ss, wish me to become acquainted with her.

"Ah! you must see Mrs. Ripley," said Emerson, on one occasion, with his fine smile; "she is one of the most remarkable persons in Concord."

And I saw a handsome, elderly lady, with silver-white hair, clear, deep blue eyes, as of the freshest youth, a very womanly demeanor, from which nobody could surmise that she reads Greek and Latin, and understands mathematics like any professor, and helps young students who can not pass their examination in these branches of knowledge, by her extraordinary talent as a teacher, and by her motherly influence. Many a youth blesses the work she has done in him. One of these related of her, "She examined me in Euclid while she shelled peas, and with one foot rocked the cradle of her little grandson."

I spent, with the Emersons, an evening with Mrs. Ripley. Neither were there any servants kept in her house. These ladies of New England are clever ladies, true daughters of those pilgrim women who endured hardships so manfully, and labored equally with their husbands, and established with them that kingdom which now extends over a hemisphere.

An ancestor of Elizabeth H. was one of the first pilgrims which that little ship, the "Mayflower," conveyed to the shore of Massachusetts. He related many times how, when these men were about to frame laws for the new colony, they liked to talk them over before their wives, their sis ters, and daughters, and to hear their thoughts upon them. This was beautiful and sensible. Of a certainty, that chivalric sentiment and love which generally prevail in America for the female sex had their origin in the dignity

and the noble conduct of those early women; of a certainty, from that early equality, that equality in rule and in rights which prevails here in domestic and social life, although not as yet politically.

I liked to talk with Elizabeth H. There is something very profound and great in this young woman; and her words frequently are as brilliant as diamonds in sunshine.

Among the persons whom I saw at the Emersons, and who interested me, was Professor Sherbe, a Swiss, a man of a noble and grave exterior, with something, also, of ultra-idealism in his philosophy. He has fought against the Jesuits in Switzerland, and is now a teacher and lecturer in America. Lastly, I made the acquaintance of a Doctor Jackson, the discoverer of the somnific effects of ether on the human frame and consciousness, and for which he received a medal from our King Oscar, which was shown to me. He made the discovery entirely by accident, as he has described. I congratulated him on having thus become the means of an infinite blessing to millions of suffering beings.

I left Concord accompanied by this gentleman, who is brother to Mrs. Emerson. But Concord did not leave my memory; its snow-covered scenery; its blue, clear sky; its human beings; its Transcendentalists: all that I had experienced, heard, and seen in Concord, and most of all, its sphinx (as Maria Lowell calls Emerson), these all form a sort of Alpine region in my mind which has a power of fascination for me, and to which I shall long to return as to the scenes and sights of my native land.

When I reached home last evening I found Marcus S., who had come hither on business. It was a heart-felt joy to me to see once more that excellent, good friend. After I had spent an hour in conversing with him and Mr. Sumner, I went with Marcus to Alcott's concluding "Conversation," where several pre-arranged topics with regard to diet and its importance to humanity were dis

cussed. Alcott maintained that all high and holy teachers of the human race had paid great attention to diet, and in particular had abstained from flesh. Some one said that Christ had eaten flesh. Another said that that could not be proved. A third said that he, at all events, had eaten fish. I said that that stood written in the Gospels. A second agreed. "No matter," said Alcott, "I know better than to eat fish."

The man is incorrigible. He drinks too much water, and brings forth merely hazy and cloudy shapes. He should drink wine and eat meat, or at least fish, so that there might be marrow and substance in his ideas. Marcus, too, was amused at the Conversation, but in his quiet way. Among the audience were some ladies with splendid, intelligent foreheads, and beautiful forms. But I did not hear them say a word: I wonder how they could sit still and listen in silence; for my part, I could not do it. And although the company were invited to a new series of Conversations, this of a certainty will be the last at which I shall be present.

January 26th. Alcott came to me yesterday afternoon; we conversed for two hours; he explained himself better during our dialogue than in his public Conversation, and I understood better than hitherto that there was really at the bottom of his reform movement a true and excellent thought. This thought is the importance of an earnest and holy disposition of mind in those who enter into the bonds of wedlock, so that the union may be noble, and its offspring good and beautiful. His plans for bringing about these beautiful and holy marriages between good and beautiful people (for none other are to enter into matrimony-oh! oh! for the many !) may be right for aught I know. They are better, and more accordant to human nature, than those of Plato for the same purpose. But who will deny that it would be better for the world if they wb cause human beings to be born into the world did it

with a higher consciousness, with a deeper sentiment of responsibility. Marriage, looked at with reference to this subject, stands in general very low. A man and woman marry to be happy, selfishly happy, and beyond that the thought seldom extends; does not elevate itself to the higher thought-" We shall give life to immortal beings!" And yet this is the highest purport of marriage. Married couples who have not offspring of their own may fulfill its duties by adopting orphan children.

"But why do you not enunciate these views fully ?" inquired I from Alcott: "they are of higher importance than any I have heard during your Conversations, and are really of the highest importance to society."

Alcott excused himself by the difficulty of treating such a subject in public Conversation, and spoke of the intention he had of realizing his views in the formation of a little society, in which, I presume, he would act as high-priest. Again a dream. But the dreamer has risen considerably in my estimation by the reality and the nobility of his views on this subject. I will even excuse his whim about diet, with the exception of its exclusiveness. I adhere to that system, which, without the one-sidedness of this and the continued use of wine and all other of God's good gifts, yet still cries aloud to mankind "Take heed ye be not overtaken by gluttony and drunkenness."

Alcott gave me two books. They contain conversations which took place between him and various children during a period when he had a school-which was intended to be "the School" par excellence. Alcott's main point in the education of children is to awaken their higher nature, and to give them a high esteem for it, so that they may love it and always act in accordance with it. He, therefore, early places before their eyes the humanideal, or the ideal-human being in Jesus Christ. every occasion of the children's assembling, Alcott began

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