Volume I Part 18 (1/2)
From the fixed answer of those dateless eyes I meet bold hints of spirit's ry prophecies Of deeds to-day, and things which are to be; Of lofty life that with the eagle flies, And huuely designated, aroup of her friends, only those ere much in her company, in the early years of my acquaintance with her
She wore this circle of friends, when I first knew her, as a necklace of diamonds about her neck They were so aret seemed to represent them all, and, to know her, was to acquire a place with theiven her were their best, and she held the coht, and the nobleness in New England, seemed, at that moment, related to her, and she to it She was everywhere a welcouest The houses of her friends in town and country were open to her, and every hospitable attention eagerly offered Her arrival was a holiday, and so was her abode She stayed a few days, often a week, more seldom a month, and all tasks that could be suspended were put aside to catch the favorable hour, in walking, riding, or boating, to talk with this joyful guest, who brought wit, anecdotes, love-stories, tragedies, oracles with her, and, with her broad web of relations to so many fine friends, seemed like the queen of some parliament of love, who carried the key to all confidences, and to whom every question had been finally referred
Persons were her game, specially, if marked by fortune, or character, or success;--to such was she sent She addressed thehty assurance,--queen-like Indeed, they fell in her here the access ht have seemed difficult, by wonderful casualties; and the inveterate recluse, the coyest maid, the ardest poet, made no resistance, but yielded at discretion, as if they had been waiting for her, all doors to this imperious dame
She disarmed the suspicion of recluse scholars by the absence of bookishness The ease hich she entered into conversation et all they had heard of her; and she was infinitely less interested in literature than in life They saw she valued earnest persons, and Dante, Petrarch, and Goethe, because they thought as she did, and gratified her with high portraits, which she was everywhere seeking She drew her couest, to who-pent story must be told; and they were not less struck, on reflection, at the suddenness of the friendshi+p which had established, in one day, new and permanent covenants She extorted the secret of life, which cannot be told without setting heart and low; and thus had the best of those she saw Whatever romance, whatever virtue, whatever impressive experience,--this came to her; and she lived in a superior circle; for they suppressed all their common-place in her presence
She was perfectly true to this confidence She never confounded relations, but kept a hundred fine threads in her hand, without crossing or entangling any An entire intimacy, which seemed to make both sharers of the whole horizon of each others' and of all truth, did not yet ave no title to the history that an equal trust of another friend had put in her keeping
In this reticence was no prudery and no effort For, so rich her mind, that she never was te The day was never long enough to exhaust her opulent memory; and I, who knew her intiust, 1846, when she sailed for Europe,--never saw her without surprise at her neers
Of the conversations above alluded to, the substance hatever was suggested by her passionate wish for equal coether noble With the firmest tact she led the discourse into the ood-will and sincerity which eachso playfully and intellectually all the points, that one see what he had found so tedious in its workday weeds, shi+ning in glorious costuht; hope see The auditor juhts What! is this the da and critical? this the blue-stocking, of whom I stood in terror and dislike? this wondrous woman, full of counsel, full of tenderness, before who is ashaifted, wise, sportive, eloquent, who seees, Heaven knohen or how,--I should think she was born to theme with riddles like this, 'Yours is an exaain, 'I see your destiny hovering before you, but it always escapes froe It told on children, and on old people; on men of the world, and on sainted ue A lady of the best earet occasionally visited, in one of our cities of spindles, speaking one day of her neighbors, said, ”I stand in a certain awe of thethat they will have small interest in Plato, or in Biot; but I saw theive them bread that they could eat” Some persons are thrown off their balance when in society; others are thrown on to balance; the excitement of company, and the observation of other characters, correct their biases
Margaret always appeared to unexpected advantage in conversation with a large circle She had more sanity than any other; whilst, in private, her vision was often through colored lenses
Her talents were so various, and her conversation so rich and entertaining, that one ht talk with her many tith which served as foundation to so much accomplishment and eloquence But, concealed under flowers and ood sense, very well able to dispose of all this pile of native and foreign ornaments, and quite able to ithout them She could always rally on this, in every circumstance, and in every co of equality with any party whatever, and make herself useful, and, if need be, for, I suppose, for a source sufficiently diffusive, said, that Mind must be _in the air_, which, when all ence And when er measures of reason, as aesop, Cervantes, Franklin, Scott, they gain in universality, or are no longer confined to a few associates, but are good company for all persons,--philosophers, women, men of fashi+on, tradesmen, and servants Indeed, an older philosopher than Anaxiuish superior or purer sense as _coaret had, with certain lis, inhaling this universal element, and could speak to Jew and Greek, free and bond, to each in his own tongue The Concord stage-coachuished her by his respect, and the chambermaid was pretty sure to confide to her, on the second day, her hoive any true report of Margaret's conversation She soon became an established friend and frequent inmate of our house, and continued, thenceforward, for years, to coht with us She adopted all the people and all the interests she found here Your people shall beboy I shall cherish as my own Her ready sympathies endeared her to ood sense and sincerity
She suited each, and all Yet, she was not a person to be suspected of coht say, were chemical
She had so uest to entertain, as she could be left to herself, day after day, without apology According to our usual habit, we seldo together, or walked, or rode In the evening, she came to the library, and many and many a conversation was there held, whose details, if they could be preserved, would justify all encomiums They interested me in every manner;--talent, ion, the finest personal feeling, the aspects of the future, each followed each in full activity, and left ifts of uest Her topics were nuion, were never far off She was a student of art, and, though untravelled, knew, much better than most persons who had been abroad, the conventional reputation of each of the ant criticis the probley and Dey; then, also, French Socialism, especially as it concerned woman; the whole prolific faenius and career of each remarkable person
She had other friends, in this town, beside those in e, who had known her longer than I, and whose prejudices Margaret had resolutely fought down, until she converted her into the firmest and most efficient of friends In 1842, Nathaniel Hawthorne, already then known to the world by his Twice-Told Tales, came to live in Concord, in the ”Old Manse,”
with his wife, as herself an artist With these welcoaret formed a strict and happy acquaintance She liked their old house, and the taste which had filled it with new articles of beautiful form, yet harmonized with the antique furniture left by the for walks, and rides, and boatings, which that neighborhood co, whose as her sister, built a house in Concord, and this circuaret
ARCANA
It was soon evident that there was soan about her; that she had soenius; that her fancy, or her pride, had played with her religion She had a taste for gems, ciphers, talismans, omens, coincidences, and birth-days She had a special love for the planet Jupiter, and a belief that the ot that her nanified a pearl
'When I first met with the name Leila,' she said, 'I knew, from the very look and sound, it was s out stars, as sorrow brings out truths' Sortilege she valued She tried _sortes biblicae_, and her hits were memorable I think each new book which interested her, she was disposed to put to this test, and know if it had somewhat personal to say to her As happens to such persons, these guesses were justified by the event
She chose carbuncle for her own stone, and when a dear friend was to give her a gem, this was the one selected She valued what she had somewhere read, that carbuncles are ht, the male has his within himself 'Mine,' she said, 'is the male' And she ont to put on her carbuncle, a bracelet, or soem, to write letters to certain friends One of her friends she coupled with the onyx, another in a decided ith the aehts and understanding 'The Greek ainst drunkenness_' She characterized her friends by these stones, and wrote to the lastlines:--
'TO ----