records of Margaret's brilliant youth,
because their prophecies aid us greatly in the interpretation of her
later life. The inspired maiden of these letters and journals is very
unlike the "Miss Fuller" who in those very days was sometimes quoted as
the very embodiment of all that is ungraceful and unfeminine. How little
were the beauties of her mind, the graces of her character, guessed at
or sought for by those who saw in her unlikeness to the popular or
fashionable type of the time matter only for derisive comment!

It may not be unimportant for us here to examine a little the
_rationale_ of Margaret's position, and inquire whether the trait which
occasioned so much animadversion was not the concomitant of one of
Margaret's most valuable qualities. This we should call a belief in her
own moral and intellectual power, which impelled her to examine and
decide all questions for herself, and which enabled her to accomplish
many a brave work and sacrifice. This sense of her own power was
answered by the common confession of weakness which then was, and still
is, a part of the received creed of women on the level of good society.
Did not the prone and slavish attitude of these women appear to Margaret
as fatal to character as it really is?

"I am only a woman," was a remark often heard in that day, as in this,
from women to whom that "only" was not to be permitted! Only the
guardian of the beginning of life, only the sharer in all its duties and
inspirations? Culture and Christianity recognized as much as this, but
the doctrine still remained an abstract one, and equal rights were
scarcely thought of as a corollary to equal duties. Margaret never saw,
though she foresaw, the awakening and recognition of the new womanhood
which is already changing the aspect of civilized society. An eccentric
in her own despite, she had dared assume her full height, and to demand
her proper place. Her position was as exceptional as was her genius.
From the isolation of her superiority, was it wonderful that she should
consider it more absolute than it really was?

This exaggerated sense of power is perhaps nothing more than the
intensification of consciousness which certain exigencies will awaken in
those who meet them with a special work to do and a special gift to do
it with. It must be remembered that Margaret's self-esteem did not
really involve any disesteem of others. She honored in all their best
traits, and her only ground of quar