ments of thought and knowledge, and endeavor to place them in
one relation to one another in our minds. To systematize thought and
give a precision and clearness in which our sex are so deficient,
chiefly, I think, because they have so few inducements to test and
classify what they receive. To ascertain what pursuits are best suited
to us, in our time and state of society, and how we may make the best
use of our means of building up the life of thought upon the life of
action."

These conversations continued for several successive winters, and were
in reality a vindication of woman's right to think. In calling forth
the opinions of her sex upon Life, Literature, Mythology, Art,
Culture, and Religion, Miss Fuller was the precursor of the Woman's
Rights agitation of the last thirty-three years. Her work, "The Great
Lawsuit; or, Man _vs._ Woman, Woman _vs._ Man," was declared by Horace
Greeley to be the loftiest and most commanding assertion made of the
right of woman to be regarded and treated as an independent,
intelligent, rational being, entitled to an equal voice in framing and
modifying the laws she is required to obey, and in controlling and
disposing of the property she has inherited or aided to acquire. In
this work Margaret said: "It is the fault of MARRIAGE and of the
present relation between the sexes, that the woman _belongs_ to the
man, instead of forming a whole with him.... Woman, self-centered,
would never be absorbed by any relation; it would only be an
experience to her, as to Man. It is a vulgar error that love--_a_
love--is to Woman her whole existence; she is also born for Truth and
Love in their universal energy. Would she but assume her inheritance,
Mary would not be the only virgin mother."

Margaret Fuller was the first woman upon the staff of _The New York
Tribune_, a position she took in 1844, when she was but thirty-four.
Mrs. Greeley having made Margaret's acquaintance, attended her
conversations and accepted her leading ideas, planned to have her
become a member of the Greeley family, and a writer for _The Tribune_;
a position was therefore offered her by Mr. Greeley upon his wife's
judgment. It required but a short time, however, for the great editor
to feel her power, although he failed to fully comprehend her
greatness. It has been declared not the least of Horace Greeley's
services to the nation, that he was willing to entrust the literary
criticisms of _The Tribune_ to one whose standa