IV.
CHARACTER. — AIMS AND IDEAS OF LIFE.
“O friend, how flat and tasteless such a life!
Impulse gives birth to impulse, deed to deed,
Still toilsomely ascending step by step,
Into an unknown realm of dark blue clouds,
What crowns the ascent? Speak, or I go no farther.
I need a goal, an aim. I cannot toil,
Because the steps are here; in their ascent
Tell me THE END, or I sit still and weep.”
“Naturliche Tochter,”
“And go he went onward, ever onward, for twenty-seven years — then, indeed, he had gone far enough.”
I would say something of Margaret’s inward condition,
of her aims and views in life, while in Cambridge,
before closing this chapter of her story. Her powers,
whether of mind, heart, or will, have been sufficiently
indicated in what has preceded. In the sketch of her
friendships and of her studies, we have seen the affluence
of her intellect, and the deep tenderness of her
woman's nature. We have seen the energy which she
displayed in study and labor.
But to what aim were these powers directed? Had she any clear view of the demands and opportunities of life, any definite plan, any high, pure purpose? This
