rs.'

"Margaret was then pressed to say what she considered life to
be.

"Her answer was so full, clear, and concise, at once, that
it cannot but be marred by being drawn through the scattering
medium of my memory. But here are some fragments of her
satisfying statement.

"She began with God as Spirit, Life, so full as to create and
love eternally, yet capable of pause. Love and creativeness
are dynamic forces, out of which we, individually, as
creatures, go forth bearing his image, that is, having within
our being the same dynamic forces, by which we also add
constantly to the total sum of existence, and shaking off
ignorance, and its effects, and by becoming more ourselves,
i.e., more divine;--destroying sin in its principle, we attain
to absolute freedom, we return to God, conscious like himself,
and, as his friends, giving, as well as receiving, felicity
forevermore. In short, we become gods, and able to give the
life which we now feel ourselves able only to receive.

"On Saturday morning, Mrs. L.E. and Mrs. E.H. were present,
and begged Margaret to repeat the statement concerning life,
with which she closed the last conversation. Margaret said she
had forgotten every word she said. She must have been inspired
by a good genius, to have so satisfied everybody.--but the
good genius had left her. She would try, however, to say what
she thought, and trusted it would resemble what she had said
already. She then went into the matter, and, true enough, she
did not use a single word she used before."

The fame of these conversations spread wide through all families and
social circles of the ladies attending, and the golden report they
gave, led to a proposal, that Margaret should undertake an evening
class, of four or five lessons, to which gentlemen should also be
admitted. This was put in effect, in the course of the winter, and
I had myself the pleasure of assisting at one--the second--of these
soirees. The subject was Mythology, and several gentlemen took part
in it. Margaret spoke well,--she could not otherwise,--but I remember
that she seemed encumbered, or interrupted, by the headiness or
incapacity of the men, whom she had not had the advantage of training,
and who fancied, no doubt, that, on such a question, they, too, must
assert and dogmatize.

But, how well or ill they fared, may still be known; s