in proportion to the importance of
the subject, does she tax her mind, and say what is most
important; while, of necessity, nothing is reported from
the conversations but her brilliant sallies, her occasional
paradoxes of form, and, sometimes, her impatient reacting
upon dulness and frivolity. In particular points, I know, some
excel her; in particular departments I sympathize more with
some other persons; but, take her as a whole, she has the most
to bestow on others by conversation of any person I have ever
known. I cannot conceive of any species of vanity living in
her presence. She distances all who talk with her.

"Mr. E. only served to display her powers. With his sturdy
reiteration of his uncompromising idealism, his absolute
denial of the fact of human nature, he gave her opportunity
and excitement to unfold and illustrate her realism and
acceptance of conditions. What is so noble is, that her
realism is transparent with idea,--her human nature is the
germ of a divine life. She proceeds in her search after the
unity of things, the divine harmony, not by exclusion, as Mr.
E. does, but by comprehension,--and so, no poorest, saddest
spirit, but she will lead to hope and faith. I have thought,
sometimes, that her acceptance of evil was _too great_,--that
her theory of the good to be educed proved too much. But in a
conversation I had with her yesterday, I understood her better
than I had done. 'It might never be sin to us, at the moment,'
she said, 'it must be an excess, on which conscience puts the
restraint.'"

The classes thus formed were renewed in November of each year, until
Margaret's removal to New York, in 1844. But the notes of my principal
reporter fail me at this point. Afterwards, I have only a few sketches
from a younger hand. In November, 1841, the class numbered from
twenty-five to thirty members: the general subject is stated as
"Ethics." And the influences on Woman seem to have been discussed
under the topics of the Family, the School, the Church, Society, and
Literature. In November, 1842, Margaret writes that the meetings have
been unusually spirited, and congratulates herself on the part taken
in them by Miss Burley, as 'a presence so positive as to be of great
value to me.' The general subject I do not find. But particular
topics were such as these:--"Is the ideal first or last; divinatio