Page:Margaret Fuller by Howe, Julia Ward, Ed. (1883).djvu/63

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MARGARET FULLER,

CHAPTER V.

WINTER IN BOSTON.—A SEASON OF SEVERE LABOUR.—CONNECTION WITH GREFNE STREET SCHOOL, PROVIDENCE, R.I.—EDITORSHIP OF THE "DIAL."—MARGARET'S ESTIMATE OF ALLSTON'S PICTURES.

Margaret's removal was to Boston, where a twofold labour was before her. She was engaged to teach Latin and French in Mr. Alcott's school, then at the height of its prosperity, and intended also to form classes of young ladies who should study with her French, German, and Italian.

Mr. Alcott's educational theories did not altogether commend themselves to Margaret's judgment. They had in them, indeed, the germ of much that is to-day recognised as true and important. But Margaret considered him to be too much possessed with the idea of the unity of knowledge, too little aware of the complexities of instruction.

He, on the other hand, describes her "as a person clearly given to the boldest speculation, and of liberal and varied acquirements. Not wanting in imaginative power, she has the rarest good sense and discretion. The blending of sentiment and of wisdom in her is