Volume I Part 8 (2/2)

”The peculiar nature of the scholar's occupation consists in this,--that science, and especially that side of it from which he conceives of the whole, shall continually burst forth before him in new and fairer forrow old within hi hier views of its significance”

FICHTE

Of Margaret's studies while at Cae, I knew personally only of the German She already, when I first became acquainted with her, had become familiar with the masterpieces of French, Italian and Spanish literature But all this a had not made her ”deep-learned in books and shallow in herself;” for she brought to the study of enius equal or superior”--so far, at least, as the analytic understanding was concerned Every writer whom she studied, as every person whom she knew, she placed in his own class, knew his relation to other writers, to the world, to life, to nature, to herself Much as they ht her, they never swept her away She breasted the current of their genius, as a stately swanwater the le she wrestled thus with the genius of De Stael, of Rousseau, of Alfieri, of Petrarch

The first and aret was the clear, sharp understanding, which keenly distinguished between things different, and kept every thought, opinion, person, character, in its own place, not to be confounded with any other The God Terhts as we know each other's faces; and opinions, with , were in her mind substantial and distinct realities Some persons see distinctions, others resemblances; but she saw both No sophist could pass on her a counterfeit piece of intellectual nized the one pure metallic basis in coins of different epochs, and when ave a co, as it enabled her to show the one Truth, or the one Law,itself in such various phenomena Add to this her profound faith in truth, which hts to her were things The world of her thoughts rose around her mind as a panoraround, the palethe sky with its outline in the distance,--and all in pure light and shade, all in perfect perspective

Margaret began to study German early in 1832 Both she and I were attracted towards this literature, at the sale-call of Thomas Carlyle, in his romantic articles on Richter, Schiller, and Goethe, which appeared in the old Foreign Review, the Edinburgh Review, and afterwards in the Foreign Quarterly

I believe that in about three aret co with ease the masterpieces of its literature Within the year, she had read Goethe's Faust, Tasso, Iphigenia, Hermann and Dorothea, Elective Affinities, and Memoirs; Tieck's William Lovel, Prince Zerbino, and other works; Korner, Novalis, and so of Richter; all of Schiller's principal dra I saw her, and heard an account of her studies Her mind opened under this influence, as the apple-blossoht and the beauty of this rich literature equally filled her ination

But if she studied books thus earnestly, still more frequently did she turn to the study of sured by her rapid fancy,--every trait intensified, developed, ennobled Lessing says that ”The true portrait painter will paint his subject, flattering hi the face not as it actually is, but as creation designed, o froaret's portrait-painting intellect treated persons in this way She saw the the loss from wear and tear, from false position, from friction of untoward circumstances If we may be permitted to take a somewhat transcendental distinction, she saw them not as they _actually_ were, but as they _really_ were This accounts for her high esti, indeed, but justified to her e of their interior capabilities

The following extract illustrates her power, even at the age of nineteen, of co far apart fro to a point of viehich could overlook both:--

'I have had,--while staying a day or two in Boston,--some of shi+rley's, Ford's, and Hey wood's plays from the Athenaeue, and intellectual, but , passion One of the finest fictions I recollect in those specimens of the Italian novelists,--which you, I think, read when I did,--noble, where it illustrated the Italian national spirit, is ruined by the English novelist, who has transplanted it to an uncongenial soil; yet he has given it beauties which an Italian eye could not see, by investing the actors with deep, continuing, truly English affections'

The following criticisues of Plato, (dated June 3d, 1833,) in a letter returning the book, illustrates her downright way of asking world-revered authors to accept the test of plain coht not to be read; for it was not intended as such, but as a first impression hastily sketched But read it as an illustration of the method in which her reat Platohi his

'_June_ 3, 1833--I part with Plato with regret I could have wished to ”enchant er Eutyphron is excellent Tis the best speci There is one passage in which Socrates, as if it were _aside_,--since the remark is quite away from the consciousness of Eutyphron,--declares, ”qu'il aimerait incomparablement mieux des principes fixes et inebranlables a l'habilite de Dedale avec les tresors de Tantale” I delight to hear such things froht to say the says, and I, enden spricht er denn?

MINNA----Er spricht von keiner; denn ihn fehlt keine”

For theof the heart, as well as love, anger, &c

'”Crito” I have read only once, but like it I have not got it in y”

I deem only remarkable for the noble tone of sentiment, and beautiful calument weak in many respects The nature of abstract ideas is clearly set forth; but there is no justice in reasoning, from their existence, that our souls have lived previous to our present state, since it was as easy for the Deity to create at once the idea of beauty within us, as the sense which brings to the soul intelligence that it exists in some outward shape He does not clearly show his opinion of what the soul is; whether eternal _as_ the Deity, created _by_ the Deity, or how In his answer to Si of the words har a hars to write, and some I have not had time to examine Meanwhile I can think over parts, and say to myself, ”beautiful,” ”noble,” and use this as one of my enchantments'

'I send two of your German books It pains me to part with Ottilia I e could learn books, as we do pieces ofa solitary walk But, now, if I set out with an Ottilia, this wicked fairy association conjures up such crowds of less lovely companions, that I often cease to feel the influence of the elect one I don't like Goethe so well as Schiller now

Ihim That perfect wisdo pictures of forms more beautiful than truth Nathless, I should like to read the second part of Goethe's Memoirs, if you do not use it now'