II.
CAMBRIDGE.
The difficulty which we all feel in describing our past
intercourse and friendship with Margaret Fuller, is, that
the intercourse was so intimate, and the friendship so
personal, that it is like making a confession to the public
of our most interior selves. For this noble person, by
her keen insight and her generous interest, entered into
the depth of every soul with which she stood in any real
relation. To print one of her letters, is like giving an
extract from our own private journal. To relate what
she was to us, is to tell how she discerned elements of
worth and beauty where others could only have seen
what was common-place and poor; it is to say what
high hopes, what generous assurance, what a pure
ambition, she entertained on our behalf, — a hope and
confidence which may well be felt as a rebuke to our low
attainments and poor accomplishments.
Nevertheless, it seems due to this great soul that those of us who have been blessed and benefited by her friendship should be willing to say what she has done for us, — undeterred by the thought that to reveal her is to expose ourselves.
