New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-12-29

MARGARET AND HER FRIENDS. Or Ten Con-
versations with Margaret Fuller upon the Myth.
ology OF the Greeks and Its Expression In Art.
Held a, the House Of the Rey George Ripley.
is4l Reported by Caroline w. Healey. PIP. l62
Roberts Brothers
Margaret Fuller often proved herself an acute
Interpreter Of myth. and ever since her day the
problem has been whether this acuteness was
matter of learning Of inspiration. If she was
often deeply suggestive, she was also sometimes
equally superficial. and that would imply that
her intuitions lacked the Lvariable support
which patient learning gives to an alert imagl-
nation The memoirs published many years
ago, to which many hands contributed, left
this matter in doubt In fact the book in hand
casts more light 1t than does any publlca-
ton OF the past Here Margaret confesses that
of writer's in Greek she was familiar only
with Homer. and when she comes to more
particular statement rchearses In brief the
statements that occur also in her biography
When in one Of these conversations, James
Freeman Clarke asked why art should pre-
sent 80 much more inspiring view Of Greek
mythology than poetry. she replied that "all
her ideas Of 1t were deduced from art She did
not profess to know much of the Greek au-
thors. and depended chiefly upon Homer
In the final conversation when she certainly
felt that her talk had been successful though
less 80 than II the class had comprised WON IN
only she changed her attitude a little-not
toward Greek litera lure, but toward her theme
IN q general way One Of the women happened
IN saw that she was ashamed of her ignorance
and Miss Fuller replied with just a tinge of
gracious condescension that no one need to
feel So 1t was a subject that might exhaust
any preparation. Still. she wished we would
study. She had herself enjoyed great advan-
taRes Nobody's explanation had ever per-
p,exed her brain. She had been placed In a
garden with great pile Of books before her
She began to read Latin before she read Eng
Iish For a time these deities were real to her.
and she prayed o God! If Thou art Jupiter"
This is a picturesque epitome OF details That
must be we'll known to every one who has read
the early memoirs James Freeman Clarke
added what she had told him once of praying
in childhood to Bacchus for bunch OF grapes.
and she replied that when she grew old enough
IN think about Christianity. "she cried out for
her old Greek gods" meaning, however, the
gods OF her favorte Latin poets
This apparent confusion between Greek and
Latin deities Mrs Dalls special grievance
with the conversations. In her reports as print
ed In this volume she mentions more than once
the difficulty she had in identifying Jupiter ana
Zeus They were and remained two different
personages to her. But there was here vivid
testimonial to the correctness of Miss Euller's
intutions The gods of the Latin poets were
as foreign to Rome as the characters Of Latin
comedy. II was only by processes Of urcon-
scIous cerebration that native Roman Ideas
were allowed enter the Intentionally artificial
mythology of men like Lucretius and Virgil ard
Ovid who had their eyes fixed the sayings
Of Hellenic philosophers and the mytho-
graphic concoctions. Of the Alexandrian bib
liophiles and antiquaries. Margaret Fullers
Latin gods just Greek their
creators knew how TO make them, and she
was quite right In speaking of them as
Greek though she did this in defiance Of the
learned fashion in her day. On the Other ha nd,
she was liable TO just that confusion. which the
greatest Roman writer's themselves could not
escape-of getting an Italian superstition mixed
up with others that were purely Hellenic II
she escaped this peril In these conversations.
the reason was that she had occasion 10
follow details Another reason was that any
attempt to humanize her deites except rs
ideals. 10 imagine. for instance. that Anollo
had at some time been a man. Was obnoxious 10
her. Suggestions OF this sort were occa sionally
made by some Of her more refractory puDA