Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Volume I   By: Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)

OF

MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI

VOL. I.

Only a learned and a manly soul I purposed her, that should with even powers The rock, the spindle, and the shears control Of Destiny, and spin her own free hours.

BEN JONSON.

Però che ogni diletto nostro e doglia Sta in si e nò saper, voler, potere; Adunque quel sol può, che col dovere Ne trae la ragion fuor di sua soglia.

Adunque tu, lettor di queste note, S' a te vuoi esser buono, e agli altri caro, Vogli sempre poter quel che tu debbi.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

BOSTON: PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY. MDCCCLVII.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851,

BY R.F. FULLER,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Stereotyped by HOBART & ROBBINS; NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY BOSTON.

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR VOLUME FIRST.

I. YOUTH. AUTOBIOGRAPHY PARENTS DEATH IN THE HOUSE OVERWORK THE WORLD OF BOOKS FIRST FRIEND SCHOOL LIFE SELF CULTURE

II. CAMBRIDGE, By J.F. Clarke FRIENDSHIP CONVERSATION. SOCIAL INTERCOURSE STUDIES CHARACTER. AIMS AND IDEAS OF LIFE

III. GROTON AND PROVIDENCE. LETTERS AND JOURNALS SAD WELCOME HOME OCCUPATIONS MISS MARTINEAU ILLNESS DEATH OF HER FATHER TRIAL BIRTH DAY DEATH IN LIFE LITERATURE FAREWELL TO GROTON WINTER IN BOSTON PROVIDENCE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES PERSONS ART FANNY KEMBLE MAGNANIMITY SPIRITUAL LIFE FAREWELL TO SUMMER

IV. CONCORD, By R.W. Emerson ARCANA DÆMONOLOGY TEMPERAMENT SELF ESTEEM BOOKS CRITICISM NATURE ART LETTERS FRIENDSHIP PROBLEMS OF LIFE WOMAN, OR ARTIST? HEROISM TRUTH ECSTASY CONVERSATION

V. BOSTON, By R.W. Emerson CONVERSATIONS ON THE FINE ARTS

YOUTH.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

"Aus Morgenduft gewebt und Sonnenklarheit Der Dichtung Schleir aus der Hand der Wahrheit."

GOETHE.

"The million stars which tremble O'er the deep mind of dauntless infancy."

TENNYSON.

"Wie leicht ward er dahin gefragen, Was war dem Glücklichen zu schwer! Wie tanzte vor des Lebens Wagen Die luftige Begleitung her! Die Liebe mit dem süssen Lohne, Das Glück mit seinem gold'nen Kranz, Der Ruhm mit seiner Sternenkrone, Die Wahrheit in der Sonne Glanz."

SCHILLER

What wert thou then? A child most infantine, Yet wandering far beyond that innocent age, In all but its sweet looks and mien divine; Even then, methought, with the world's tyrant rage A patient warfare thy young heart did wage, When those soft eyes of scarcely conscious thought Some tale, or thine own fancies, would engage To overflow with tears, or converse fraught With passion o'er their depths its fleeting light had wrought.'

SHELLE

"And I smiled, as one never smiles but once; Then first discovering my own aim's extent, Which sought to comprehend the works of God. And God himself, and all God's intercourse With the human mind."

BROWNING.

I.

YOUTH.

'Tieck, who has embodied so many Runic secrets, explained to me what I have often felt toward myself, when he tells of the poor changeling, who, turned from the door of her adopted home, sat down on a stone and so pitied herself that she wept. Yet me also, the wonderful bird, singing in the wild forest, has tempted on, and not in vain.'

Thus wrote Margaret in the noon of life, when looking back through youth to the "dewy dawn of memory." She was the eldest child of Timothy Fuller and Margaret Crane, and was born in Cambridge Port, Massachusetts, on the 23d of May, 1810.

Among her papers fortunately remains this unfinished sketch of youth, prepared by her own hand, in 1840, as the introductory chapter to an autobiographical romance.

PARENTS.