and gardens, of a character to supplement, and
never combat, a husband who exercised all the domestic dictation
which Puritan habits and the marital law encouraged.

"He thought to gain time by bringing forward the intellect as
early as possible," wrote Margaret in her autobiographical
sketch. "Thus I had tasks given me, as many and as various as
the hours would allow, and on subjects beyond my age; with
the additional disadvantage of reciting to him in the evening
after he returned from his office. As he was subject to many
interruptions, I was often kept up till very late, and as he
was a severe teacher, both from his habits of mind and his
ambition for me, my feelings were kept on the stretch till
the recitations were over. Thus, frequently, I was sent to
bed several hours too late, with nerves unnaturally
stimulated. The consequence was a premature development of
the brain that made me a 'youthful prodigy' by day, and by
night a victim of spectral illusions, nightmare, and
somnambulism, which at the time prevented the harmonious
development of my bodily powers and checked my growth, while
later they induced continual headache, weakness, and nervous
affections of all kinds.... I was taught Latin and English
grammar at the same time, and began to read Latin at six
years old, after which, for some years, I read it daily....
Of the Greek language I knew only enough to feel that the
sounds told the same story as the mythology; that the law of
life in that land was beauty, as in Rome it was stern
composure.... With these books I passed my days. The great
amount of study exacted of me soon ceased to be a burden, and
reading became a habit and a passion. The force of feeling
which under other circumstances might have ripened thought,
was turned to learn the thoughts of others."

By the time she entered mature womanhood, Margaret had made
herself acquainted with the masterpieces of German, French, and
Italian literatures. It was later that she became familiar with the
great literature of her own tongue. Her father died in 1835, and in
1836 she went to Boston to teach languages.

"I still," wrote Emerson (1851), "remember the first
half-hour of Margaret's conversation. She was then twenty-six
years old. She had a face and a frame that would indicate
fullness and tenacity of life. She was rather