hat she still admires
you,--I think her place in heaven will be very high."

But qualities of this kind can only be truly described by the
impression they make on the bystander; and it is certain that her
friends excused in her, because she had a right to it, a tone which
they would have reckoned intolerable in any other. Many years since,
one of her earliest and fastest friends quoted Spenser's sonnet as
accurately descriptive of Margaret:--

"Rudely thou wrongest my dear heart's desire,
In finding fault with her too portly pride;
The thing which I do most in her admire
Is of the world unworthy most envied.
For, in those lofty looks is close implied
Scorn of base things, disdain of foul dishonor,
Threatening rash eyes which gaze on her so wide
That loosely they ne dare to look upon her:
Such pride is praise, such portliness is honor,
That boldened innocence bears in her eyes;
And her fair countenance, like a goodly banner,
Spreads in defiance of all enemies.
Was never in this world aught worthy tried,
Without a spark of some self-pleasing pride."

BOOKS.

She had been early remarked for her sense and sprightliness, and for
her skill in school exercises. Now she had added wide reading, and
of the books most grateful to her. She had read the Italian poets
by herself, and from sympathy. I said, that, by the leading part
she naturally took, she had identified herself with all the elegant
culture in this country. Almost every person who had any distinction
for wit, or art, or scholarship, was known to her; and she was
familiar with the leading books and topics. There is a kind of
undulation in the popularity of the great writers, even of the first
rank. We have seen a recent importance given to Behmen and Swedenborg;
and Shakspeare has unquestionably gained with the present generation.
It is distinctive, too, of the taste of the period,--the new vogue
given to the genius of Dante. An edition of Cary's translation,
reprinted in Boston, many years ago, was rapidly sold; and, for the
last twenty years, all studious youths and maidens have been reading
the Inferno. Margaret had very early found her way to Dante, and from
a certain native preference which she felt or fancied for the Italian
genius. The following letter, though of a later date, relates to these
studies:--

TO R.W.E.

'_December_, 1842.--When you were here, you seemed to thi