Year: 1870

BY MEssRs. CLARKE, DIR. HEDGE, MIR. CHAN
MING, AND COL. HIGGINsON-POEM RECITEp


BY MRS. HOWE, AND LETTERS READ fhoM
FRIENDS.


Boston, May 23.-Every day, for some days,
the New-England woman's Club has been engaged I'D


vigorous preparation for high festival to take place
the occasion Of Margaret Fullers birthday II living


in this world she would be GO years old to-day; now she
lives always young in memories and our thougnts.
Always radiant with the glory Of inspired far seeing,
richly-cultured YOUTH that while one lamens the
worlds loss in her departure, yet for her own sake one
can hardly regret that God opened to her the food
gates Of his Heaven before she had been touched by the
leveng finger OF time, IL Is most fitting that Club OF
women should do honor to this woman who glory
to wOmanhood. The desire Of the public to share in
this expression OF feeling has been made manifest by the
crowds who have besieged the officers Of the Club for
tickets. As illustration OF the severity with which the


attendance limited TO the members Of the Club and
the or two Of guests invited because Of old friend
ship for Margaret it may console some OF the excluded
to mention that permission bring the Rev. Robert
Coyer resOlutely refused to Of his friends The
hour named for the OF the exercises
3 o'clock; but it was half hour after that before
Mr.. Clarke took the chair. Meantime one had


leisure to note the very beautiful decorations Of the
roOms-the clubhouse parlors In Tremontplace.
promnent object was portrait Of Margaret Fuller, by
Thomas Hicks hung around with royal purple which
BELTS queen, with white dayliies bendingfoyer 1t from
above and the-vaey clustered lbeneath 1t. In
another recess another portrait OF her-a coored
by pictures OF four OF her dear
est friends, James Freeman Clarke, Vim. Henry Chan
ming, Seth Cheney, and Theodore Parker Elsewhere
hung portraits Of the children whom she loved and OF
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Casts from antique statues were
here and there choice bronzes and above ALL flowers in
such profusion that 1t seemed all the gardens OF the
Summer had blossomed in advance in Margarets honor


Mr. Clarke the first speaker. at twenty years.,


he said since the friend havo met to honor went


from stormy night the very shore OF her native
land returning it, hoping to again the friends OF
her love- enriched by her European tour her life full OF
hope and ambition Twenty years; and always more
and more. We who knew and loved her. think Of her as
of the best blessings Of lives. The greatness OF
her mind was matched by the largeness Of her soul
She passed through every Of culture and devoted
herself at last the help Of humanity the best thing
She was not only q woman OF genius, but she was a
woman whom selfcOnSecration made holy. 1t Is in
vain TO try to put her into words. No
has drawn satisfactory portrait Of her. Try as one
WILL fine aroma escapes us always, and we cannot
make those who did not know her understand why she
nober than ALL and scarcely any one was worthy to
be called second where she first Large, and deep
and high-she was all these. She had wonderful COM
prehenson of character at clear critical and SYM
pathetic. She had capacity inOiwhich all rivers ran
and yet it full She gave her friends all they
could take and had infinitely to give. The Mahom
etans call Abraham The Friend " and that is Margarets
truest title. She emne ny The Friend and wait
to hear her spoken Of she only should be- by her
friends.


DR.. Hedge came next His friendship with Margaret
anedated Of any Of the others He found 1t impos
sble to conceive of her the sexagenaran she would
have to-day for there seemed to him In her constr
tuition provision for old age He knew her first In
Cambridge when she IS yeardod-a child in years
q woman in physical development, and already in soc


<,,I1a nanfd
men stately carriage it seemed that nature intended


her for beauty but missed the aim by giving her an un
proportion of brain, which induced premature con-
scousness and the necessary for beau
tful developmentas when the mold too much shaken
the statue out awry In those days was hard
for Margaret to forgive nature or herself for this want OF
beauty She would have given all the powerso Of her mind
pink and white prettiness Of some other girls
This made her bitter and sarcastic. She became very
unpopular in Cambridge and was sent to school for
year GrotOn She passed through terrible mental
experiences at GrOtOn, and back to Cambridge so
changed that she not only popularity but devoted
respect Whatever else she was and she was much she
was most of all O critic and no criticism has been
written in this country to compare with hers She under
stood the highest minds and she sat judgment on them
with presumption but Then, taking out OF
his pocket private letters from Margaret he read
extracts from them which seemed to place us curiousy
en- RAPPORT with her. They written in





were full Of individuality; alive with all that Marga
ret was that almost seemed IL she herself had come
into midst Toward the end of her life he again saw
good deal Of her in Italy. She was physically worn
and faded but her soul indescribaby gorfed and
enlarged She was working day and night for Others,
and continued to work till the last


Mr. Claiming next took up the word, and said that Mr.
Emerson being present. he came in due order of
cessOn. If she is here among U.s." he said and his
whole rapt face looked by some sense unknown to
US he saw did not see, "I should like to say to
her, Dear friend, I did not know you, love
you, estimate you as I ought. siowly
l have been growing toward you, and the
higher climb the nearer come to appreciating you"
Hers was the nObest and fullest life he had ever known
No other had ever given him such comprehension Of
what grand thing human life ought to be. II ever there
was Great Heart earth she was the one and In her
great heartedness lay to his thinking the secret OF her
power In the early days Of his halfknowledge OF her
he used think this greatheartedness was arrogance
and omemes to repr0ve her for it, but he learned at
last simply capacity to appreciate great things
The ear to listen to the Tyre Of Apollo could
not tolerate meaner note The she was so fine


critic was because she went to great men and to her
congenial peers. She penetrated all characters by
going straight their best that one seemed not 10
have satisfactorily known oneself till one had seen one
self in her mirror. She the most dev0uty religious
person he had ever known. When she was about 2 an
experience came to her which more orthodox persons
might call new BIRTH 1t transfgured life for her, and
filled her soul with something divine which never left
her afterward He with her in the Highlands OF the
Hudson when she was writing her Woman IN the Nine
tenth Century. And the mask was lifted then which
shnwed him how noble being a woman might be-
WHAT she said was infinitely more than what she
wrote Indeed no description could ever do justice
70 the nower of her conversation. The last and
most +" profound word in regard to her tender
ness He had heard her called masculine, but
innst unstly Strong she was but it the strength
of deep aud pure wOmanhood which drew other women
toward her. One Christmas she stood among the con-
victs at Sing Sing and said to them few words Of
Christmas greeting with such gracious sweetness that