The sun., 1883-11-04

There was doubtless room for collection
OF biographies which should justify its right
to the attractive title Of the Famous Women
Series" But tho definition and criterion of
fame adopted should have been made patent
by the names OF the persons selected for
portratture. and should commend itself to the
Judgment Of tho majority OF intelligent
readers. To pass over or even to POSTPONE
the lives OF Nine. do Sevignd and Nine de Stael
OF Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Mrs.
browning. ami to place instead Of them within
the foremost inches Of the gallery the COM
paratively obscure and modest figures of Emily
Brontd. Mary Lamb. and Ammo Bradstreet. is
to assume privilege Of graduating distinction
and appraising achievement which will scarcely
he conceded to the abnormal standards and
private predictions of an anonymous editor.
1t Is plain. indeed. that the term famous"
earned now and then in generation
by men OF letters. and even in such instances
only occasionally countersigncd by posterity
means something very different from tho COLI
ception attaching to the same word when ap-
plied to literary women by the compiler of the
series now In course of publication by the
Mossrs. Roberts. Un1ucstionaby there have
been within the last two centuries famous
women in the highest and largest meaning of
the epithet. and quite enough OF them TO form n
as lustre: but rs yet many Of the brightest
names are unrccorded in tho series in uues-
tion. and even should Miss Austen and Mrs,
Browning receive hereafter the attention they
deserve, they can hardly fail to be belittled by
tho strange lowering of the accepted tests of
greatness and by the mixed company in which
they will find themselves.
No ono conversant with the literary history
OF the United States during the first half of
this century-which. although i!Ium nated Ly
two stars Of the first magnitude Emerson and
Hawthorne. cannot seriously be regarded rs
particularly fruitful or specially respIcndsnt-
would deny that Margaret Eullr,. n sketch of
whom by Mrs. JULIA WARD HOWE forms TN,
latest number of tho series to which wa bave
referred WIS in her day an interest ny and To
n considerable extent a useful woman of lat
tsrs But it WAS a day of small tbinps and
Miss Fuller's fugitive ou,piyinps AR. rcrtninIv
not numbered in tho narrow list OF the literary
products OF thnt time which have suryiv.L
She wrote literary and art criticisms for n,,n,,.
zines and newspapors and there ia no dnuht
that her work was greatly superior as regard.
both matter and form to most OF ,ho writin,,
which American periodicals could afford ia INV
for forty years ago. But IL viii IA, ,cL,owi,
edged that at n period when th, Nav
York Tribune did not feel its.lf nhl,
to pay George Ridley more than sl5 a w,., ,ns
field Of labor chosen by Miss Fuller was mo-, nm
inviting one. Under such conditions iournnl.
ism was not likely to tempt many cnpnbl. and
energetic toiers from the other liberal nrofes.
sions; indeod, 1t had scarcely yentur,d 70 chnI-
lenge for itself a place in the sam. cat,,,orv
With the exception OF Edgar Poe, whose mhii.
ties and whose hold upon postcrity it would h,
absurd to underrate by comparing them with
Miss Fuller's. and George Ripley. whose in.
tuitions were less ublle and whose sympnthies
were much less glowing and infectious than
hers. the subject of Mrs, liowe's biography had