New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-05-13
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MARGARET FULLER.

there is need of new book about TINS ustingu'sneo
woman who though much discussed has been httie
understood His portrait Of her differs from all the
earlier sketches and while it is not we'll suited
10 pique puzzled interest as the wenKnowh
sketches by Emerson, Charming. Clarke and Others
we must say that We find it more hfe-like and more
attractive Mr. Hgginson has enjoyed great ad-
yautages for the Performance Of his task lie mas
had access TO rich store of family manuscripts III
GLIDING diaries, letters and other materials never
before used in pript He Is connecIeu WIN .u0
Fpllers nv marriage He has enjoyed intimate re-
lations with the literary aud philosophical coio ~
which Mss.Fuller.held suchi a conspicuous place
and has been devout student OF her w,i.ineo
md perhaps should be itioned, as an addi'oha
fact in his favor as biograpber, that he was born
inst little too late to fall under the spell Oh er
nersonaI influence His hope therefore, that the
careful and agreeable volume which he mas ho"
nut forth may serve an intermediate step Dc
tween the original Memoirs which gave the estr
mate offered by personal friendship-and that re-
moter verdict which will be the judgment OF an I'M
partial posterity," is certainly not extrayagant
The Memoirs written by Emerson W. IL.
Claiming and James Freeman Clarke appeared
over thirty years ago. They formed an interesting
collection of tributes but not a formal life and 1t
WAS inevitable that they should present an imper-
feet and misleading study of character which
these illustrious friends had perhaps admired only
under one or two of its many aspects. and whlch
the sensational circumstances of Margarets foreign
marriage. her brief life in Rome, and her tragic
death had invested just then with a peculiar halo
of romance Certainly to the world at large Mar
aaret Fuller has seemed a remote and awful syDh'
The generation which did not know her remembers
principally the stories of her enormous erudltion
her daring fights into the transcendental em-
pyrean. her extraordinary faculty of making her.
self dsagre6abe to strangers, her eccentric ancies
and beliefs Of which Emerson gave an odd cata-
logue) her bold and somewhat combative thought
her boundess powers of conversation on hlgh
themes and her habit of command. People OF liter
airy tastes nowadays remember Hawthornes refer
ence TO Miss Fuer's COW. at Brook Farm, which
lorded it over the other cows; they recall the
Miranda of the Fable FOR Critics " talking to her
small flock of terrified victims" with an l-turn-
the-crank of the Universe air.; and we suspect
that they congratulate themselves upon never
having made the acquaintance of Miss uiler III the
flesh Tie Memoirs" We say, are In part RESPONSE
bic for the unpleasant traditions not because ihey
ignore the softer and womanly side of Margaret
Fuller for they do set down multitude of her
most beautiful traits; but because they envelop
her in such thick fog of philosophy aspiration
and book-lcarnng Mr.. Hgginson shows MS beng
with whom it woud be much easier for plain people
10 get along than this oppressive and admirable
franscendentalst Of the EmersOnian tradition. In
their analysis" ne says, " these biographies seem
10 me to have gwen an inevitable prominence to
her desire for selculture, perhaps because it was
on this side that she encountered them; but
think that any one who will patiently study her in
her own unreServed moments viii now admit that
what she always most desired was not merely self
culture but a career of mingled thought and action
such as she finally found She who, at the age of
tn rteen met young scholars returned from Europe
with enthusiastic indications OF American society
against their attacks; she who, few years later,
read with delight all Jeflersons correspo ndence
was mott framed by nature for mystic, dreamer,
or bool-worm. She longed as she herself said, to
be Perlcles rather than an Anaxagoras: and she
occupied her time with omnivorous study, with
writing, with talking with mysticism, while wait
ing for her career In view of all this cannot re-
sist the opinion that the prevalent tone of the
Memoirs leaves her little too much in the
clouds and gives MS too little of that vigorous
ecutive side which was always prominent in her
aspirations for herself and which was visible to all
after she reached Italy" For bringing her down
from the clouds for illustrating that power of SYM
pathy and fascination which adorned her life with
80 many fervent friendships, for setting forth her
noble devotion to practical duty. Mr. Higginson de-
serves the cordial thanks of all Margaret Fullers
admirers. We cannot think. however, that the
active executive career to which she aspred found
its fullest expression in her few months attendance
in the Roman hospitals. Hundreds of women with
no special fitness for executive functions have
known how to nurse wounded soldiers, and have
returned after such brief episodes of usefulness to
dreamy life. Margaret Fuers vigorous executive
side" was displayed much moro fully in the man
agement of The Dial under circumstances of great
difficulty to which Mr.. Hgginson makes an amusing
reference in conducting it," he says, " she had
10 attempt that hardest thing in life TO bring
into IL Refo
are like the Esquimaux dogs. which must be
hitched 10 the sledge each by n separate thong if
put in one common harness, they turn and eat each
Other up. Under the common phrase, Transcend
entalsts' comprised at that day people of the
most antagOnistc temperaments. Nobody could
dwell higher among the clouds than AlcOtt; no one
could keep his feet more firmly or the earth than
Parker; yet they must be harnessed to the same
conveyance. Those who have had to do similar
charioteoring amid the milder divergenccs and
smoother ndiyidualitios of the present day
best estimate what her task must have BEEN We
are not sure but that good deal of the executive
feulty also found employment in Margaret Fuller's
contributions to journalism. Her engagement by
Mr. Greeley as a writer for THE TRIBUNE was one
Of the first steps in that application Of the CHER
critical and literary culture to the of the daily
newspaper in which it has been the boast of this
paper always to take the lead; ana although she
never succeeded in wholly subduing her moods to
the exactoDs of regular periodical task shaped
by memorable laws Of time and space she did teach
her aspiring genius to conform pretty well, for the
most part, to the daily duty This implied prac
teal adaptabty as well as intellectual force How
far Margaret FulleTs essays in newspaper criticism
contributed TO the advancement of the literary
movement in which she concerned can never be
measured. That they had powerful effect may be
taken for granted but cannot be proved. Certainly
they must have given force and direction to great
many vague tendencies, and expression to great
many vague wishes. and they must have reused
many weak snirits. besides promoting the SERMONS