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diff --git a/old/62756-0.txt b/old/62756-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 1a4d910..0000000 --- a/old/62756-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3082 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Margaret and Her Friends, by -Margaret Fuller and Caroline Wells Healey Dall - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: Margaret and Her Friends - or, Ten conversations with Margaret Fuller upon the - mythology of the Greeks and its expression in art, held - at the house of the Rev. George Ripley, Bedford Place, - Boston, beginning March 1, 1841 - -Author: Margaret Fuller - Caroline Wells Healey Dall - -Release Date: July 25, 2020 [EBook #62756] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARGARET AND HER FRIENDS *** - - - - -Produced by Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - -MARGARET AND HER FRIENDS - - - - -BY THE SAME AUTHOR. - - -WHAT WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT SHAKESPEARE. 12mo, cloth. Price, $1.25. - -THE LIFE OF DR. ANANDABAI JOSHEE, a Kinswoman of the Pundita Ramabai. -12mo, cloth. Price, $1.00. - -LETTERS HOME FROM COLORADO, UTAH, AND CALIFORNIA. 12mo. Price, $1.50. - -BARBARA FRITCHIE. A Study. With Portrait. 12mo. Price, $1.00. - - ROBERTS BROTHERS, - _Publishers_. - - - - - MARGARET AND HER FRIENDS - OR - Ten Conversations - WITH - MARGARET FULLER - UPON - THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE GREEKS AND - ITS EXPRESSION IN ART - - HELD AT THE HOUSE OF THE REV. GEORGE RIPLEY - - BEDFORD PLACE, BOSTON - - _BEGINNING MARCH 1, 1841_ - - REPORTED BY CAROLINE W. HEALEY - - BOSTON - ROBERTS BROTHERS - 1895 - - _Copyright, 1895_, - BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. - - _All rights reserved._ - - University Press: - JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. - - - - -TABLE OF CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - PREFACE 5 - - MEMBERS OF THE CLASS 17 - - I. GENERAL MYTHOLOGICAL STATEMENT 25 - - II. GENERAL STATEMENT CONTINUED. R. W. E. PRESENT[1] 40 - - III. STORY FROM NOVALIS. APOLLO 60 - - IV. MINERVA. THE SERPENT 77 - - V. VENUS AND PSYCHE. R. W. E. PRESENT 95 - - VI. CUPID AND PSYCHE. MARGARET, AND ELISABETH HOAR 106 - - VII. PLUTO AND TARTARUS 123 - - VIII. MERCURY AND ORPHEUS. R. W. E. PRESENT 135 - - IX. HERMES AND ORPHEUS 147 - - X. BACCHUS AND THE DEMIGODS 156 - - - - -PREFACE. - - -In 1839, Margaret Fuller, delicate in health and much overtaxed, -consented to gratify many who loved her by opening in Boston a series of -“Conversations for Women.” In a Circular quoted by Emerson, she says to -Mrs. Sophia Ripley:— - - “Could a circle be assembled in earnest, desirous to answer the - questions, ‘What were we born to do?’ and ‘How shall we do it?’ - I should think the undertaking a noble one.” - -This was certainly the original intent of the famous “Fuller -Conversations,” which, beginning then, were continued at intervals, -until Margaret left Boston for New York in 1844. - -It seems a little singular, therefore, to find her writing to Ralph Waldo -Emerson of this series, Nov. 25, 1839, as follows:— - - “The first day’s topic was the genealogy of Heaven and Earth; - then the Will or Jupiter; the Understanding, Mercury: the - second day’s, The celestial inspiration of Genius, perception - and transmission of Divine Law; Apollo the terrene inspiration, - Bacchus the impassioned abandonment. Of the thunderbolt, the - caduceus, the ray and the grape, having disposed as well as - might be, we came to the wave and the sea-shell it moulds to - beauty.... - - “I assure you, there is more Greek than Bostonian spoken at the - meetings!” - -Under the forms suggested by Mythology, Margaret proceeded to open all -the great questions of life. In a literary sense, she distinctly stated -that she knew little about the doings on Olympus, nor had she received -any help from German critical works,—of which at the present day she -would have found many. - -These Conversations owed their attraction first to the absolute novelty -of her theme to many of those she addressed, and still more to the -variety and freshness of her own treatment. The opening, at the Boston -Athenæum, of the splendid collection of casts presented by Thomas -Handasyd Perkins, and many private collections of pictures, engravings, -gems, and miniature casts, had interested her intensely, and both mind -and fancy were absorbed in the contemplation of their themes. In these -Conversations she depicted what she had gained from Art, rather than -the little that she had acquired through study. If I may judge from -a later experience, her Latin studies rather injured than developed -her brilliant fancies. She never could remember what she had said, -never could repeat a brilliant saying, and, if obliged to read any -illustration, read it, as all her friends admitted, very badly. From a -statement made to Emerson, I quote the following:— - - “Her mood applied itself to the mood of her companion, point - to point, in the most limber, sinuous, vital way; ... and this - sympathy she had for all persons indifferently.” - -The communication of which the above is a sample I have always read with -amazement, for I never knew a person of whom it would seem less true. -When conversing with one sympathetic person, it was undoubtedly true; -when resting upon the affection and loyalty of her young women,—a most -gifted and extraordinary circle,—it was doubtless equally so; but when -the class of March, 1841, was formed, a very different aspect of herself -appeared. - -The fame of her “talks” had spread. She had great need of money, and some -of the gentlemen who were accustomed to talk with her, and some of the -ladies of her day-class, suggested an evening class, to be composed of -both ladies and gentlemen, and to meet at the house of the Rev. George -Ripley in Bedford Place. Ten Conversations were to be held, and the -tickets of admission cost twenty dollars each, a very high price for -that time. It was in the book-room of Elisabeth Peabody that I first -heard them discussed. I was very young to join such a circle; and when -she invited me, Elisabeth had more regard, I think, to Margaret’s purse, -than to my fitness for the company. But it was a great opportunity. The -members were full of excitement over the projected opening of Brook -Farm. All were in good spirits, and bright sayings ran back and forth. -I had been carefully trained in the Art of Reporting, and at that time -made careful abstracts on the following day of any lecture that had -interested me. In these I trusted to my memory. It was not possible to -do this with the Conversations; so I invented a sort of short-hand, and -carried note-book and pencil with me. I sat a little out of sight that I -might not embarrass Margaret, but Elisabeth Peabody and Mrs. Farrar found -me out. Elisabeth wrote what she called an abstract, every night; but an -examination of her abstracts quoted by Mr. Emerson shows that what she -wrote was not what any one said, but the impression made upon her own -mind by it. These abstracts she always read to me, the next morning. I -wrote out my short-hand notes before breakfast and carried them down to -her about noon. I greatly enjoyed listening to her papers, and she was so -absorbed in them that she often forgot to ask for mine, which was a great -relief to me. - -So far as I know, these Reports of mine are the only attempt ever made -deliberately to represent these or any of Margaret’s “Conversations” -word for word. Of course, much was omitted as not worth recording, nor -did I ever write down anything that I could not understand. Many of the -members I knew intimately, and fell naturally into writing of them by -initials and first names, as they always spoke to and of each other. At -times I fell back into the Mr., Mrs., or Miss, which was my own habit. -It is well to call those we love by any name they will permit, but the -familiar habit of the Transcendental circle was full of social peril to -the younger members, who, conceiving it a proof of genius, followed it, -when its origin was forgotten, and were much misunderstood in consequence -in later years. - -I offer the Reports exactly as they were written. I should like to alter -them in several small ways if I could do it honestly. We met to discuss -Grecian Mythology as interpreted to Margaret’s mind by Art; but Latin and -Greek names were used as if they were synonymous, and Latin poems were -quoted, as well as Greek traditions. This confused my mind then, and does -still. Athene and Minerva, Zeus and Jupiter, are by no means the same -persons to me, Art or no Art. - -It may be thought by those who cannot remember the persons who enacted -this little drama, or by those who do remember and know well how very -distinguished a company this was, that I should have eliminated my own -reflections, and dropped out of the story. - -This would I think have been greatly unjust to Margaret, who never -enjoyed this mixed class, and considered it a failure so far as her own -power was concerned. She and Mr. Emerson met like Pyramus and Thisbe, -a blank wall between. With Mr. Alcott she had no patience, and no one -of the class seemed to understand how sincere and deep was her interest -in the theme. In no way was Margaret’s supremacy so evident as in the -impulse she gave to the minds of younger women. - -It was the wish of Margaret’s mother and brothers, as it is also the -wish of her surviving relatives, that I should print these pages. After -Arthur’s death, Richard Fuller undertook to carry out a plan to which -both had agreed, and which Margaret’s mother had greatly at heart. -They desired that I should write a simple, straightforward account of -Margaret, including her residence in Italy, her marriage, the birth -of her child, and her death. This they intended to print at their own -expense, and they thought it might be so written as to put an end to many -absurd and painful rumors which had followed the publication of the first -Memoir. That I might prepare for this, all Margaret’s manuscripts were in -my custody for more than a year. The completion of the work was prevented -by Richard Fuller’s unexpected death. No surviving member of the family -was able to carry out his intention. - -I still have in my possession the estimate of his sister’s character -which Richard made for my use. - -I should like to add, that the scholar will see that the stories from -Apuleius and Novalis do not exactly correspond to the originals. They -were reported exactly as they were told. - - CAROLINE HEALEY DALL. - - Sept. 1, 1895, WASHINGTON, D. C. - - - - -A LIST OF PERSONS ATTENDING THE CLASS NAMED IN THIS REPORT. - -_About thirty persons usually attended._ - - - GEORGE RIPLEY. The well-known clergyman, settled over a - Unitarian church in Purchase St., Boston, afterward the - President of the Association at Brook Farm, and later literary - editor of the New York “Tribune.” - - SOPHIA DANA RIPLEY, his wife. - - ELISABETH PALMER PEABODY. A woman of remarkable accumulations - of learning, and as remarkable a breadth of sympathy. She - was a teacher,—an enthusiastic advocate of the Kindergarten, - and opened at No. 13 West St., Boston, a foreign Circulating - Library, which soon became a sort of Literary Exchange of the - greatest use to New England. Her own great powers did not - accomplish all they ought, because it was impossible for her to - apply them systematically. - - FREDERICK HENRY HEDGE. The well-known German and ecclesiastical - scholar, whose remarkable scholarship and character have not - yet received the commemoration they deserve. He was at this - time settled over the church in Bangor, Maine. - - JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. Already the pastor of the Church of the - Disciples, in Boston, and preaching at Amory Hall. The outline - of his lovely and useful life is preserved in a memoir by the - Rev. E. E. Hale, D.D. - - RALPH WALDO EMERSON. The Concord philosopher. - - MRS. FARRAR, born Rotch, the wife of the Harvard Professor of - Physical Science and Mathematics. - - FRANCIS G. SHAW. The son of a well-known Boston merchant, to - be honored through all time as the father of Colonel Robert G. - Shaw, who was buried where he fell, with the negroes whom he - died to free. - - MRS. SARAH B. SHAW, his wife. - - ANN WILBY CLARKE, wife of a Boston bank-officer and the oldest - member of an English family of Wilbys, nearly every member of - which was at some time a teacher in Boston or its neighborhood. - - MRS. JONATHAN RUSSELL of Milton, widow of the U. S. Minister - to Sweden (1814-1818), residing on the old Governor Hutchinson - place at Milton, and - - MISS IDA RUSSELL, her daughter. - - WILLIAM WHITE. The brother of the first wife of James Russell - Lowell, who was killed by a fall from the bluff at Milwaukee in - 1856. - - WILLIAM W. STORY. Sculptor, poet, and lawyer, and well known as - a contributor to Blackwood. Still living. - - CAROLINE STURGIS, daughter of William Sturgis of - Boston,—married later to Mr. Tappan,—a most gifted and charming - creature. - - MRS. ANNA BARKER WARD, wife of S. G. Ward, now living in - Washington. - - JONES VERY of Salem. A Transcendental poet. - - ELISABETH HOAR was the daughter of Samuel Hoar of Concord, - Mass., and of Sarah, the daughter of Roger Sherman of - Connecticut. Elisabeth was not the least gifted of her very - gifted family. One brother, recently deceased, was President - Grant’s first Attorney-General; another is the well-known - Senator from Massachusetts to the Congress of the United - States; and a third, Edward Sherman Hoar, was distinguished - as a scholar and botanist. To great intellectual gifts, - Elisabeth added personal loveliness and a saintly serenity of - character. She was betrothed to Charles Emerson (a brother of - Ralph Waldo Emerson), who died of sudden illness just before - the time appointed for their marriage. He was also a rarely - gifted person, and after his death his family transferred their - tenderest affection to Elisabeth. The reader of the various - Lives of Emerson will see that she is often mentioned, and - several of Emerson’s letters are addressed to her. Had she - chosen to devote herself to literature, she would have been - greatly distinguished. The Life of Mrs. Ripley of Waltham, - written for “The Women of Our First Century,” and published - by a committee appointed at the Centennial Exhibition in - Philadelphia, was written by her. She died in 1878. - - A. BRONSON ALCOTT of Concord. A memoir of him has been written - by the Hon. F. B. Sanborn of Concord, assisted by Wm. T. Harris. - - W. MACK. A gentleman of great ability, who taught a school - in Belmont. His daughter was the first wife of Stillman, the - artist. The family is, I think, extinct, unless Mrs. Stillman - left a daughter. - - SOPHIA PEABODY. A younger sister of E. P. P., afterwards Mrs. - Nathaniel Hawthorne. - - MARIANNE JACKSON. A lovely, beloved, and accomplished woman, - who died early. She was the daughter of Judge Charles Jackson, - one of the soundest jurists who ever sat on a Massachusetts - bench,—the sister of Mrs. Oliver Wendell Holmes, of Mrs. - Charles C. Paine, and the aunt, I believe, of Mr. John T. Morse. - -I have reserved for the last the name of the only sound Greek scholar -among us: Charles Wheeler. - - CHARLES STEARNS WHEELER. Born in Lincoln, near Concord, Dec. - 19, 1816, of H. U. 1837, distinguished as a Greek scholar from - whom much was expected. To economize in order to pursue his - Greek studies he built a shanty at Walden, which is said to - have served as a suggestion to Thoreau. He went to Germany - directly after these Conversations, and died suddenly of fever - at Leipzig, in the summer of 1843. His death was a great - grief and a great shock. I have not forgotten the sensation - it produced. Beloved and honored by all who knew him, the - community of scholars was especially bereaved. To this day, I - am able to trust fearlessly to any information obtained from - him. - - - - -“_Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness._”—LONGFELLOW. - - - - -MARGARET AND HER FRIENDS. - - - - -I. - - - _Monday Evening, March 1, 1841._ - -Margaret opened the conversation by a beautiful sketch of the origin of -Mythology. The Greeks she thought borrowed their Gods from the Hindus and -Egyptians, but they idealized their personifications to a far greater -extent. The Hindus dwelt in the All, the Infinite, which the Greeks -analyzed and to some degree humanized. All things sprang from Cœlus and -Terra.,—that is, from Heaven and Earth, or spirit and matter. Rhea, or -the Productive Energy, and Saturn, or Time, were the children of Cœlus -and Terra. The progress of any people is marked by its mythi. Mythology -is only the history of the development of the Infinite in the Finite. -Saturn devoured his own children until the disappointed Rhea put a -stone (or obstacle) in his way, and she succeeded in raising Jupiter. -The development of human faculties was slow, therefore Time seemed to -absorb all that Productive Energy brought forth, until Energy itself -created obstacles; and of these was born the Indomitable Will. Jupiter -represented that Will, and usurped the rule of Time, fighting with the -low and sensual passions, represented by the Titans and the Giants, -until he seated himself securely on the Olympian Throne, the Father of -the Gods. This Will was not in itself the highest development of either -Beauty, Genius, Wisdom, or Thought; but such developments were subject to -it, were its children. - -Juno is only the feminine form of this Indomitable Will. By herself -she is inferior to it, and whenever she opposes it, loses the game. -Vulcan, her child, is Mechanic Art, great in itself to be sure, but not -comparable to the Perfect Wisdom, or Minerva, which sprang ready armed -from the masculine Will. _She_ was greater than her Father, but still his -child. - -Neptune, who raises always a “placid head above the waves,” represents -the flow of thought,—all-embracing, girdling in the world, Diana and -Apollo, or Purity and Genius. - -Mercury is Genius in the extrinsic, of eloquence, human understanding, -and expression. All were the embodiments of Absolute Ideas, of ideas -that had no origin,—that were eternal. Love brooded over Chaos; and the -perfect Beauty and Love, represented among the Greeks by Venus and her -son, rose from the turbid elements. It is singular that even the ancients -should have maintained the pre-existence of Love. It was before Order, -Men, or the Gods men worshipped. The fable suggests the truth,—Infinite -Love and Beauty always was. It is only with their development in finite -beings that History has to do. - -Here MARGARET recapitulated. The Indomitable Will had dethroned Time, -and, acting with Productive Energy,—variously represented at different -times by Isis, Rhea, Ceres, Persephone, and so on,—had driven back the -sensual passions to the bowels of the earth, while it produced Perfect -Wisdom, Genius, Beauty, and Love, results which were more excellent if -not more powerful than their Cause. - -To understand this Mythology, we must denationalize ourselves, and throw -the mind back to the consideration of Greek Art, Literature, and Poesy. -It is only scanty justice that my pen can render to Margaret’s eloquent -talk. - -FRANK SHAW asked her how she imagined these personifications to have -suggested themselves in that barbarous age. - -MARGARET objected to the word _barbarous_. She believed that in the age -of Plato the human intellect reached a point as elevated in some respects -as any it had ever touched. - -But the Gods were not the product of that age, but of another far -more remote, FRANK objected. Was not the infinity of Hindu conception -impaired, when the Greeks attributed to the Gods the duties, passions, -and criminal indulgences of men? - -MRS. RIPLEY said that the virtue of the Hindu lay in contemplation. If a -man had seen _God_, he was exempt from the ordinary obligations of life, -and allowed to pass his life in quiet adoration. - -MARGARET added that the Greek knew better than that. _He_ felt the -necessity of developing the Infinite through action, and embodied this -necessity in his art and poesy as well as in his myths. - -FRANK seemed still to think that in losing the adoring contemplation of -the Hindu, and bringing their deities to the human level, the Greeks had -taken one step down. - -E. P. P. had always thought it had been a step _up_, and ANN CLARKE -thought that the Greeks forgot themselves, merged all remembrance of the -Finite, in realizing the individual forces of the Infinite. - -WILLIAM WHITE, who had not waded very far into the stream, thought the -North American Indian’s worship of the Manitou purer than the Greek -worship, for the very reason that the Indian ascribed to his Manitou no -passion that had degraded humanity. - -MARGARET said that the Indian propitiated his God by vile deeds, by -ignoble treacheries and revenge. So the Hindu throws her child into the -Ganges, and an ecstatic crowd falls before the car of Juggernaut. - -I thought a good deal, but did not speak. Did not William’s question -grow out of the simple Unity of the Indian worship? But the Indian does -not worship the Manitou because he recognizes a single First Cause, -comprehending in itself all beauty, wisdom, purity, and truth, but -because his heart is naturally lifted toward an unknown something, -which he has hardly yet considered as a Cause. The Greek recognized the -abstract forces of the Universe, but did not perceive their Unity, and -so personified them separately. - -E. P. P. suggested that the Indian had no literature, and had left no -record of his Olympus! - -MARGARET added that, if we compare the Indian Elysium with the Greek, the -difference in spirituality is perceived at once. - -HENRY HEDGE said that Frank Shaw talked about Greek mythi, but nobody -could show a purely Greek mythos. - -FRANK replied that he only meant that when the Greek mind had acted on a -myth, it had not refined it. - -MARGARET added that it was a vulgar notion that the Poets of Greece -created her Gods; that the Poets were objective, and could give only -humanized representations of them. - -HENRY HEDGE thought that there was a point to which philosophy aided and -prompted the creative power, but, that point passed, rather checked its -action. Analysis took the place of the objective tendency. - -Well! said WILLIAM WHITE, would not the human mind, aided only by -culture, be incapable of any better idea than Frank Shaw suggested? Must -not revelation complete the work? - -MARGARET said that the answer to his question would be determined by -his understanding of the word “revelation.” _She_ could not believe in -a God who had ever left himself without a witness in the world. As soon -as the human mind and will were ready, there was always some great Truth -waiting to be submitted to their united action, until it was worn out. -The beautiful Greek era had been succeeded by a period of inaction; the -Roman era by another, and so on. She was sorry we had wandered from our -subject so far as to doubt her very premises! - -FRANK said, everything rested on those premises; so he thought that the -ideals of beauty, love, justice, and truth should be referred to the -Infinite Mind, and not to the Greek. - -I wonder where he was when Margaret told about the Love which “was” -before Order! - -HENRY HEDGE said that Culture was the Mediator between the Finite and the -Infinite. - -JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, alluding to Mr. Hedge’s previous remark upon the -growth of philosophy, and the loss of the creative power, said that if -that were a fact, it greatly diminished the probability of the birth -of pure Genius into the world. Plato wrote when philosophy was at the -turning point. - -MARGARET said that there were many proofs in Plato that the philosophers -understood the personifications of the mythi. She thought that the gods, -the demigods, and the heroes of mythology represented distinct classes, -and that this was not sufficiently remembered. She referred to the story -of the burning of Hercules in Ovid, where Jupiter calls Juno to see how -well his son endures! - -WILLIAM WHITE said that he thought the idea of Deity was degraded when -the Greeks changed a hero into a god; but if Culture be a Mediator, would -not Plato have been greater had he been born into the nineteenth century? - -JAMES F. CLARKE said Platos were impossible now. - -MARGARET agreed, and said that the pride of knowledge which he would -find in the world should he appear, would be a greater obstacle than -superstition once was. - -Did somebody say a little while ago that Will indomitable was born of -obstacle? - -MARGARET told William White that Coleridge had once said that he could -neither measure nor understand Plato’s ignorance! His mind had not -reached that altitude! - -HENRY HEDGE, not willing to forego the possible birth of Genius, asked if -all the experience and discovery with which the world had been enriched -since Plato’s time would not furnish enough for the new-comer to act upon? - -MARGARET replied that the mind could not receive unless excited. She must -go through all the intellectual experience of a Plato, to be as great -as he; but she might stand upon the general or even her own intuitive -recognition of the truths he had advanced, and go forward to greater -results,—but still that would not be to make herself greater. - -But, said MRS. RIPLEY, in the first case you would be nothing _but_ Plato. - -MARGARET acceded, but begged not to be understood as doubting that the -future would be capable of finer things than the past. - -The ideal significance of the Mythology was further dwelt upon, and -much was said of the contrast between the thought of the priest and the -worship of the people. It was acknowledged as a matter of course, that -only a few preserved any consciousness of the original significance of -the Mythology. - -HENRY HEDGE thought that this was the true key to the purpose of the -Eleusinian mysteries, whether in Egypt where they originated, or in -Greece where they were introduced. Through them, all who chose became -initiated into the interior meaning of the Mythology. - -CHARLES WHEELER added, that in the flourishing times of the Athenian -Republic every citizen was compelled to initiate himself. - -MARGARET closed our talk with a gentle reproof to our wandering wits. To -prevent such desultory prattling, she desired that a subject should be -proposed for the next evening. The story of Ceres or Rhea, in fact the -Productive Energy however manifested, carried general favor, and Margaret -said archly that she had thought the presence of gentlemen (who had never -until now attended one of her talks) would prevent the wandering and keep -us free from prejudice! - -I thought she was rightly disappointed. - -I cannot recall the words, but at some time this evening Margaret -distinguished three mythological dynasties. The first was the reign of -the Natural Powers. The second, represented by Jupiter, Pluto, and -Neptune, stood for the height, the depth, and the surface or flow of -things, the first manifestations of human consciousness. The third was -the Bacchic, Bacchus not being yet, in her estimation, the vulgar God of -the wine-vat and the festival, but the inspired Genius,—being to Apollo, -as she said, what the nectar is to the grape. - - CAROLINE W. HEALEY. - - March 2, 1841. - - - - -II. - - - _March 8, 1841._ - -Margaret recapitulated the statements she made last week. By thus giving -to each fabled Deity its place in the scheme of Mythology, she did not -mean to ignore the enfolding ideas, the one thought developed in all—as -in Rhea, Bacchus, Pan. She would only imply that each personification -was individual, served a particular purpose, and was worshipped in a -particular way. - -Before proceeding to talk about Ceres, she wished to remind us of the -mischief of wandering from our subject. She hoped the ground she offered -would be accepted _at least to talk about_! Certainly no one could deny -that a mythos was the last and best growth of a national mind, and that -in this case the characteristics of the Greek mind were best gathered -from this creation. - -Ceres, Persephone, and Isis, as well as Rhea, Diana, and so on, seem -to be only modifications of one enfolding idea,—a goddess accepted by -all nations, and not peculiar to Greece. The pilgrimages of the more -prominent of these goddesses, Ceres and Isis, seem to indicate the life -which loses what is dear in childhood, to seek in weary pain for what -after all can be but half regained. Ceres regained her daughter, but only -for half the year. Isis found her husband, but dismembered. This era in -Mythology seems to mark the progress of a people from an unconscious to -a conscious state. Persephone’s periodical exile shows the impossibility -of resuming an unconsciousness from which we have been once aroused, the -need thought has, having once felt the influence of the Seasons, to -retire into itself. - -CHARLES WHEELER reminded Margaret that she had said that the predominant -goddesses, without reference to Greece, enfolded only one idea, that of -the female _Will_ or _Genius_,—_the bounteous giver_. He had asked her -if she could sustain herself by etymological facts, and she replied that -her knowledge of the Greek was not critical enough. Since then he had -inquired into the origin of the proper names of the Greek deities, and -found that it confirmed her impression. The names of Rhea, Tellus, Isis, -and Diana were resolvable into one, and the difference in their etymology -was only a common and permissible change in the position of the letters -of which they are composed, or a mere provincial dialectic change. Diana -is the same as Dione, also one of the names of Juno. - -E. P. P. asked if Homer ever confounded the last two? MARGARET thought -not. Homer was purely objective. He knew little and cared less about the -primitive creation of the myths. - -R. W. EMERSON thought it would be very difficult to detect this secret. -Jupiter, for instance, might have been a man who was the exponent of Will -to his race. - -MARGARET said, “No; they could have deduced him just as easily from -Nature herself, or from a single exhibition of will power.” - -R. W. EMERSON said that a man like Napoleon would easily have suggested -it. - -“What a God-send is a Napoleon!” exclaimed CHARLES WHEELER; “let us pray -for scores of such, that a new and superior mythos may arise for us!” Is -it malicious to suspect a subtle irony turned against the sacred person -of R. W. E. in this speech? - -MARGARET retorted indignantly that if they came, _we_ should do nothing -better than write memoirs of their hats, coats, and swords, as we had -done already, without thinking of any lesson they might teach. She could -not see why we were not content to take the beautiful Greek mythi as they -were, without troubling ourselves about those which might arise for us! - -R. W. E. acknowledged that the Greeks had a quicker perception of the -beautiful than we. Their genius lay in the material expression of it. If -we knew the real meaning of the names of their Deities, the story would -take to flight. We should have only the working of abstract ideas as we -might adjust them for ourselves. - -MARGARET said that a fable was more than a mere word. It was a word of -the purest kind rather, the passing of thought into form. R. W. E. had -made no allowance for time or space or climate, and there was a want of -truth in that. The age of the Greeks was the age of Poetry; ours was the -age of Analysis. _We_ could not create a Mythology. - -EMERSON asked, “Why not? We had still better material.” - -MARGARET said, irrelevantly as it seemed to me, that Carlyle had -attempted to deduce new principles from present history, and that was the -reason he did not _respect_ the _respectable_. - -EMERSON said Carlyle was unfortunate in his figures, but we might have -mythology as beautiful as the Greek. - -MARGARET thought each age of the world had its own work to do. The -transition of thought into form marked the Greek period. It was most -easily done through fable, on account of their intense perception of -beauty. - -EMERSON pursued his own train of thought. He seemed to forget that we -had come together to pursue Margaret’s. He said it was impossible that -men or events should _stand out_ in a population of twenty millions as -they could from a population of a single million, to which the whole -population of the ancient world could hardly have amounted. As Hercules -stood to Greece, no modern man could ever stand in relation to his own -world. - -MARGARET thought Hercules and Jupiter quite different creations. The -first _might_ have been a deified life. The second could not. - -CHARLES WHEELER said that R. W. E.’s view carried no historical -obligation of belief with it. We could not deny the heroic origin of the -Greek demigods, but the highest dynasty was the exponent of translated -thought. - -SOPHIA RIPLEY asked if the life of an individual fitly interwoven -with her experience was not as fine a Poem as the story of Ceres, her -wanderings and her tears? Did not Margaret know such lives? - -R. W. E. thought every man had probably met his Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, -Venus, or Ceres in society! - -MARGARET was sure she never had! - -R. W. E. explained: “Not in the world, but each on his own platform.” - -WILLIAM STORY objected. The life of an individual was not universal. (!) - -SOPHIA RIPLEY repeated, “The inner life.” - -WILLIAM STORY claimed to be an individual, and did not think individual -experience could ever meet all minds,—like the story of Ceres, for -example. - -SOPHIA said all experience was universal. - -I said nothing, but held this colloquy with myself. Thought is the best -of human nature; its fulness urges expression: its need of being met, not -only by _one_ other but by every other, _craves_ it. This craving is the -acknowledgment of the universal experience. What is _purely_ individual -is perishable. _Identity_ is to be separated from individuality for this -cause. - -MARGARET said the element of beauty would be wanting to our creations. A -fine emotion glowed through features which seem to fall like a soft veil -over the soul, while it could scarce do more than animate those that were -obtuse and coarse in every outline. (!) - -“Then,” said WILLIAM STORY, and my heart thanked the _preux -chevalier_,—“then something is wanting in the emotion itself.” - -WILLIAM WHITE said, stupidly, that sunlight could not fall with equal -charm on rocks and the green grass. (!) - -I asked if the rock could not give what it did not receive? Flung back by -rugged points and relieved by dark shadows, was not the sunlight itself -transfigured? - -STORY said every face had its own beauty. No act that was natural could -be ungraceful. - -EMERSON said that we all did sundry graceful acts, in our caps and -tunics, which we never could do again, which we never wanted to do again. - -MARGARET said, at last we had touched the point. We could not restore -the childhood of the world, but could we not admire this simple plastic -period, and gather from it some notion of the Greek genius? - -R. W. E. thought this legitimate. He would have it that we could not -determine the origin of a mythos, but we might fulfil Miss Fuller’s -intention. - -MARGARET said history reconciled us to life, by showing that man had -redeemed himself. Genius needed that encouragement. - -Not _Genius_, SOPHIA RIPLEY thought; common natures needed it, but Genius -was self-supported. - -MARGARET said it might be the consolation of Genius. - -MRS. RUSSELL asked why Miss Fuller found so much fault with the present. - -MARGARET _had_ no fault to find with it. She took facts as they were. -Every age did something toward fulfilling the cycle of mind. The work of -the Greeks was not ours. - -SOPHIA RIPLEY asked if the mythology had been a prophecy of the Greek -mind to itself, or if the nation had experienced life in any wide or deep -sense. - -MARGARET seemed a little out of patience, and no wonder! She said it did -not matter which. The question was, what could _we find_ in the mythi, -and what did the Greeks mean that we should find there. Coleridge once -said that certain people were continually saying of Shakespeare, that he -did not mean to impart certain spiritual meanings to some of his sketches -of life and character; but if Shakespeare did not mean it his Genius did: -so if the Greeks meant not this or that, the Greek genius meant it. - -In relation to the progress of the ages, JAMES F. CLARKE said that the -story of Persephone concealed in the bowels of the earth for half the -year seemed to him to indicate something of their comparative states. -Persephone was the seed which must return to earth before it could -fructify. Thought must retire into itself before it can be regenerate. - -MARGARET was pleased with this, more especially as in the story of -the Goddess it is eating the pomegranate, whose seed is longest in -germinating, which dooms her to the realm of Pluto. - -GEORGE RIPLEY remarked that we saw this need of withdrawal in the -slothful ages when mind seemed to be imbibing energy for future action. -The world sometimes forsook a quest and returned to it. We had forsaken -Beauty, but we might return to it. - -Certainly, MARGARET assented. A perfect mind would detect all beauty -in the hearth-rug at her feet: the meanest part of creation contained -the whole; but the labor we were now at to appreciate the Greek proved -conclusively that _we_ were not Greek. A simple plastic nature would -take it all in with delight, without doubt or question. - -Or rather, amended EMERSON, would take it up and go forward with it. - -It makes no difference, said MARGARET, for we live in a circle. - -I did not think it pleasant to track and retrack the same arc, and -preferred to go forward with R. W. E., so I asked if there was to be no -_higher_ poetry. - -MARGARET acknowledged that there was something beyond the aspiration of -the Egyptian or the poetry of the Greek. - -GEORGE RIPLEY thought we had not lost all reverence for these abstract -forces. The Eleusinian mysteries might be forgotten, but not Ceres. We -did not worship in ignorance. The mysteries led back to the Infinite. The -processes of vegetation were actually heart-rending! Here, _I_ thought, -was a basis for my higher poetry. - -GEORGE RIPLEY acknowledged that it was so. He seemed to be more conscious -of the movement of the world than any of our party. He said we must not -measure creation by Boston and Washington, as we were too apt to do. -There was still France, Germany, and Prussia,—perhaps Russia! The work of -this generation was not religious nor poetic; still, there was a tendency -to go back to both. There were to be ultraisms, but also, he hoped, -consistent development. - -CHARLES WHEELER then related the story of Isis, of her hovering in the -form of a swallow round the tree in which the sarcophagus of Osiris had -been enclosed by Typhon; of her being allowed to fell the tree; of the -odor emitted by the royal maidens whom she touched, which revealed her -Divinity to the Queen; of the second loss of the body, as she returned -home, and its final dismemberment. - -There was little success in spiritualizing more of this story than the -pilgrimage, and R. W. E. seemed to feel this; for when MARGARET had -remarked that even a divine force must become as the birds of the air -to compass its ends, and that it was in the carelessness of conscious -success that the second loss occurred, he said that it was impossible to -detect an inner sense in all these stories. - -MARGARET replied, that she had not attempted that, but she could see it -in all the prominent points. - -CHARLES WHEELER said that the varieties of anecdote proved that the -stories were not all authentic. It was an ancient custom to strike off -medals in honor of certain acts of the Gods. To these graven pictures the -common people gave their own vulgar interpretations, as they did also to -the bas-reliefs on their temples and monuments. - -E. P. P. said this accounted for many of the stories transmitted by -Homer. When sculpture and architecture had lost their meaning, his -inventive genius was only the more stimulated to find one. - -CHARLES WHEELER asked what Margaret would make of the story that the -tears of Isis frightened children to death? - -There was a general laugh, but MARGARET said coolly, that children always -shrank from a baffled hope. - -Some one contrasted Persephone with her mother. - -MARGARET assented to whatever was said, and added that she had been -particularly struck with it in an engraving she had recently seen, in -which Ceres stood with lifted eyes, full-eyed, matronly, bounteous, -ready to give all to all, while Persephone, dejected and thoughtful, -sat meditating; and the idea was strengthened by her discovering that -Persephone was the same as Ariadne the deserted. I could only guess at -the remark by Margaret’s comment. It seemed to imply baffled hope for -Persephone. - -The Eleusinian mysteries were now alluded to. Although it has been said -that only moral precepts were inculcated through these, WHEELER urged -that a whole school of Continental authors now acknowledged that the -higher doctrines of philosophy were taught. - -R. W. E. added, that as initiation became more easy such instruction -must have degenerated into a mere matter of form, and many of the -_un_initiated surpass the initiated in wisdom. - -MARGARET admitted this. Socrates was one of the uninitiated. The crowd -seldom felt the full force of beauty in Art or Literature. To prove it, -it was only necessary to walk once through the Hall of Sculpture at the -Athenæum, and catch the remarks of any half-dozen on Michael Angelo’s -“Day and Night.” He would be fortunate who heard a single observer -comment on its power. - -MRS. RUSSELL asked why the images of the sun and moon were introduced -into these mysterious celebrations. - -MARGARET asked impatiently why they had always been invoked by every -child who could string two rhymes together. - -I said that if Ceres was the simple _agricultural_ productive energy, -of course the sun was her first minister, its genial influence being as -manifest as the energy itself. - -In regard to the etymology of the proper names, it seemed reasonable to -me that this energy should have gained attributes as it did names. Any -nation devoted to the chase would learn to call the lunar deity Diana; -any devoted to the cultivation of grain would project her as Ceres. The -reproductive powers of flocks and herds would suggest Rhea or Juno, and -philosophy or art would invoke Persephone. - -When we were talking about beauty, J. F. C. quoted Goethe, and said that -the spirit sometimes made a mistake and clothed itself in the wrong -garment. - - C. W. HEALEY. - - March 9, 1841. - - - - -III. - - -The third conversation was delayed by Margaret’s illness, and finally -took place— - - _March 19, 1841._ - -MARGARET again complained that we wandered from the subject, and told the -following story from Novalis. - -Imagine a room, on one side of it Eros and Fable at play. On the other, -before a marble slab on which rests a vase of pure water, sits a fair -woman named Sophia. Her head rests upon her hand. Between her and the -children sits a man of reverend age, before a table at which he writes -whatever has been or is. This is History; and as he finishes each sheet -he hands it to Sophia, who dips it in the vase of pure water, from which -it often emerges a perfect blank. Sometimes a few lines, at others a few -words, sometimes only a punctuation mark, survive the test. This troubles -the old man. At last he rises and leaves the room. Fable springs to his -vacant seat, and scribbles as if in play till his return, when History -reproves her for wasting the paper, and passes the sheet to Sophia, when, -lo! it comes out from her vase unchanged. Fable has borne the test of -Truth. History is enraged at this, and succeeds in driving both Sophia -and Fable from their home, unfairly. Sophia is driven away, but the child -escapes by a back door, and, becoming bewildered in the central caverns -of the Earth, falls into the power of the Fates. - -These respectable old ladies find the little Fable very troublesome, and, -after some scolding, send her away to spin, when, lo! from the recesses -of the cavern all sorts of wonders and strange shapes are spun out. The -Fates are frightened, and they seek History to learn in what manner -they may best rid themselves of the intruder. However much they may -dislike her, she is under their protection, and History can do no more -than advise them to send her out to catch Tarantulas! Fable departs and -meets Eros, who gives her a lyre, upon which she plays, and the venomous -insects swarm about her. The Fates behold her return unharmed! They had -hoped she would be stung to death, and in despair Ate throws her scissors -at the child, who gracefully avoids them. Hereupon the Tarantulas sting -the Fates in the feet, at which they begin to dance. As their clothes are -thick and heavy, this is rather inconvenient exercise, and when Fable -laughs at their distress they send her away to spin them some thin -dresses. Fable is tired of wandering. She plays upon her lyre to the -Tarantulas, bidding them spin, and she will give them three large flies. -When the dresses are done, she carries them immediately to the Fates, who -begin again to dance. The ends of the threads are still in the bodies of -the Tarantulas, who do not like to be jerked about. “Behold the flies -which I promised you,” said Fable. - -Thereupon the Tarantulas fall upon the dancing Fates, and a new dynasty -commences, in which Eros reigns, with Fable for prime minister. - -MARGARET said that in the story she had told she had set us the example -of wandering from the subject, but she hoped to some purpose. She -hoped no one would have need to call upon little Fable’s body-guard of -Tarantulas. - -The subject of the evening was Apollo in contrast with Ceres, or Genius -opposed to Productive Energy. The history of Apollo stood for the -history of thought, its progressive development and its unhappiness. -All the loves of Apollo are miserable. He never labors for himself. He -uses the instruments which others have shaped. He is so delighted with -the lyre, which Mercury, that is Sagacity, has made, that he gives him -the divining-rod, and would give him more, but he cannot. The earnest -simplicity with which Apollo begs Mercury to swear by the sacred Styx not -to steal his quiver or his darts is beautiful! The common understanding, -mere human sagacity, may indeed lay hands on the weapons of the Inspired -One, but it cannot possess them. The ray, the dart, the quiver, of Apollo -all stand for the instantaneous power of thought. - -Delphi did not originally belong to Apollo. With the aid of Bacchus, he -wrested it from Terra, Neptune, and Themis; hence the name “Delphi,” or -“The brothers.” This is only another instance of his independence. All -things are made to his hand. The great contrast between Ceres and Apollo -lies in the success of each. Ceres is always full, always prepared to -meet the call of humanity. Apollo is always unsatisfied. He transmutes -whatever he touches, as he did one of his many loves, changed to a -bay-tree. His changes are always beautiful. - -JAMES F. CLARKE asked how Margaret would explain the fraternal relation -between Bacchus and Apollo. - -“Don’t you remember?” she retorted. “I don’t like to repeat it, it is so -smart and ingenious!” Apollo and Bacchus seemed to her the question and -the response. Bacchus was what the earth yielded to the touch of Genius. -The grape was genial. It typified the excess of the earth’s fruitfulness. -Bacchus avenges the wrongs of Apollo, who is said never to have seen a -shadow! He never perceives an obstacle, but instantly destroys an alien -nature. Whatever opposed Apollo met with terrible retribution,—if not -from himself, then from others. Genius cannot endure the presence of -anything that mocks at it. - -CHARLES WHEELER said something about the flaying of Marsyas. - -MARGARET said that this once seemed to her the most shocking of -cruelties, but she had lately seen a picture which reconciled her to the -deed! After looking at the self-complacent face of Marsyas, she did not -wonder that Apollo destroyed him. She longed to _see him do it_! Apollo -was never indignant at any sublime treachery. He forgave Mercury his -theft because it was god-like, because he did it so well. - -MRS. RUSSELL said ironically that the destruction of the children of -Niobe must have been a gratifying sight. - -MARGARET laughed, and said, “That is like being reminded of the ‘poor -mariner,’ when I say that I like to hear the wind blow.” The indignation -of Apollo seemed to her one of his noblest attributes. His perfect purity -separated him from all the Gods. Ceres seemed to be included in the idea -of many other Gods, as in Pan, Bacchus, Juno, and Isis; but Apollo, the -divine Genius, stands alone. There is none like him. - -HENRY HEDGE asked whether holiness appertained to Apollo. - -MARGARET thought not. Holiness supposed a voluntary consecration of one’s -self, but there was no need of this in Apollo. He was pure thought, -consecrated, but not consciously. - -HENRY HEDGE said he had asked, because, considering Jesus to have, as -he certainly had, a mythological character, he thought there was a -resemblance between him and Apollo. His own words justified the idea,—“I -am the light of the world,” and so on. - -MRS. RUSSELL asked suddenly why Apollo’s lyre had seven strings. - -MARGARET said seven was a consecrated number. - -MRS. RUSSELL asked if it did not have to do with the seven planets? - -GEORGE RIPLEY said there were not so many in that day. - -MARGARET liked the reason, and wished she had thought of it herself! - -Some one asked about the connection between Diana and Apollo. - -MARGARET said that Genius needed a sister to console him. - -EMERSON asked what bearing the inscription over the Delphic temple had -upon the story of Apollo,—the Divine pun EI, which means equally “Thou -art” and “If,”—as grand a pun as that of him who, dying, said he was -going to see the great “Perhaps”!—“le grand peut-être.” - -Better translated, I thought, as the great “May-be.” - -GEORGE RIPLEY asked if it were not generally accepted positively as “Thou -art”? - -“Probably,” MR. EMERSON said. - -HENRY HEDGE found another type of the Apollo in the Egyptian Horus. - -MRS. RUSSELL asked if the two Greek vowels had not once stood for Isis -and Osiris. If so, they would have a natural connection with the oracle. - -I remembered the inscription on the statue of Isis, “I am all that has -been and that shall be, and none among mortals has taken off my veil.” -The “I am” of the Jews, and the “Thou art” of the Delphic temple are -epigrammatic, but the same. - -EMERSON, replying somewhat curtly to Mrs. Russell, said there were -various explanations. - -The story of Phaeton came next. - -HENRY HEDGE asked how Presumption should be the child of Genius. - -“Genius must be self-confident,” Margaret said, “and that might -predominate.” - -I asked if real Genius did not know its own resources and husband them. - -MARGARET thought Genius often attempted more than it could do. - -I said a man might have genius and presume, but that if _he were a -genius_ I should expect him to be modest. Still, as it must have a crowd -of imitators, it might become the father of presumption. The substance -creates the shadow. - -WILLIAM STORY said no product could be as great as the producing power; -but that did not seem to me to touch the point, for the question was not -whether Apollo could not give birth to something less than himself, but -whether the possession of power could create an unfounded claim to it. - -The story of Latona followed. - -HENRY HEDGE said that the word meant concealment. - -MARGARET thought this very expressive, and said that the isolation which -Goethe and other geniuses had been craving since the world began Apollo -had no need to seek. His mother was concealment. The oracle was then -discussed,—how it was possible to consult it many times and receive each -time a different answer,—how it could be bribed, as by Alexander, or -would give two answers in one; but nothing very new was said. - -I remembered the double answer of the Pythoness to Crœsus when he -meditated crossing the Halys. “Thou shalt destroy a great empire,” she -said. He thought it was the enemy’s: fate decided it should be his own. - -SOPHIA RIPLEY thought the oracle belonged to Wisdom rather than Genius. - -MARGARET said Minerva dwelt in men’s houses. It was necessary a voice -from Heaven should speak. - -Some one wondered that Jupiter had not possessed himself of the oracle, -which led MARGARET back to her exponents, and she confessed that she was -not quite satisfied with her own definition of Jupiter as Will. - -EMERSON suggested that experience was a prominent feature in the -Jupiter, and named him Character. - -Character is educated Will, said MARGARET, hesitating, and paused, for -the term did not suit her. - -Juno was then spoken of as passive Will, and her traits were dwelt upon. -It is amusing to see how weak the Queen of Olympus can be in opposition -to its King. The peacock was probably made sacred to her on account of -the beauty of its plumage, while the eagle was consecrated to Jupiter on -account of its strength. - -I said that the peacock, strutting with conceit, glancing at its -ill-shaped feet and vexed enough to bawl in consequence, easily suggested -the scolding Juno. - -Some one asked a question about Æsculapius. MARGARET said he was genius -made practical. - -HENRY HEDGE thought that Apollo by his own connection with the healing -art became the symbol of physical life and beauty. - -WILLIAM STORY thought no statue could bear comparison with the Apollo -Belvedere. - -MARGARET preferred the Antinous. - -JAMES CLARKE asked why Art should present a so much more inspiring view -of Greek Mythology than Poetry. - -MARGARET said that all her ideas of it were deduced from Art. She did -not profess to know much of the Greek authors, and depended chiefly upon -Homer, but wished that some of the gentlemen who ought to know more would -speak. - -WILLIAM STORY thought it was because the poets wrote for popular -applause, for recitation and its immediate effect. Sculptors labored more -purely for their Art. - -I thought too that the dramatists often had a political aim, and -manœuvred Olympus to suit it! - -JAMES CLARKE said that if in our time every public speaker must bend to -his audience to a degree, it was still more necessary in Greece. - -We were told to consider Minerva for the next conversation, and to write -down our thoughts about her. For my part I don’t like using Latin names -for Greek deities. It greatly confuses my ideas. Jupiter and Zeus seem -very different to me. - -In regard to the story that Apollo never saw a shadow, CAROLINE STURGIS -asked how Apollo could destroy an alien nature if he never met it. - -There was quite an unsatisfactory talk about this, which would have ended -had anybody remembered how the sun solves the enigma every day. The -sun never sees the shadow it destroys. When its rays fall, light is. It -annihilates the alien by merely being. So Truth annihilates Falsehood, -yet cannot meet it. The two are never in one presence. - - CAROLINE WELLS HEALEY. - - March 20, 1841. - - - - -IV. - - - _March 26, 1841._ - -MARGARET opened our talk by saying that the subject of Wisdom presented -more conversable points than that of Genius. We could all think and talk -about Wisdom, and any man who had ever scratched his finger was to a -degree wise. - -Minerva was the child of Counsel and Intelligent Will. She had no -infancy, but sprang full-armed into being. Ready, agile, she was in -herself the history of thought. She did not need that her life should be -one of incident. Her attendant emblems are expressive: the Sphinx, the -owl, the serpent, the cock, and the javelin suggest her whole story. - -WILLIAM WHITE asked why Genius was masculine and Wisdom feminine. - -MARGARET thought no one could find any difficulty in the fact that Genius -was masculine. It presented itself to the mind in the full glow of power. -The very outlines of the feminine form were yielding, and we could not -associate them with a prominent, self-conscious state of the faculties. -Wisdom was like woman, always ready for the fight if necessary, yet never -going to it; taking reality as a basis, and classifying and arranging -upon it all that Genius creates,—seeing the relations and proper values -of things. - -GEORGE RIPLEY objected to this definition. He might have imbibed a Hebrew -idea, but the office of Wisdom was surely something more than this,—a -purely mechanical and orderly tact. - -MARGARET said she had not meant to give _our_ view of it, only the Greek -idea as manifest in the story of Minerva. To William White she said, -smiling, that she supposed he had not wondered so much that Genius should -be masculine as that Wisdom should be feminine! But the Greeks were wise, -and she revered their keen perception. - -ELISABETH HOAR said it seemed to her that Wisdom provided _means_. A hero -might be inspired by Genius, but Wisdom provided his armor, taught him to -distinguish the goal, and to perceive clearly the relation to it of any -onward step. - -MARGARET agreed to this, and - -WILLIAM STORY said that Genius was indebted to Wisdom for _means of -communication_. Genius thinks words impertinent, but Wisdom apprehends -its intuitions, and gives them shape. - -MARGARET said further, that Wisdom must adopt instinctively the finest -medium. - -It seemed to me that Wisdom not only gave power of communication, but -power of attainment. Walter Scott was a good instance of the union of -intuitive perception and human sagacity, but all these words about it -cleared up nothing. - -MARGARET then proposed that we should take up the attributes of Minerva, -and so get at the facts. - -MR. RIPLEY did not think it noble enough when she based Wisdom upon -realities. - -WILLIAM STORY said Wisdom must have something to work upon. He thought -Wisdom compared the intuitions of Genius with realities. - -CHARLES WHEELER thought the word _actual_ would help them out of their -difficulty. - -I wanted to quote Emerson to the effect that the Ideal is more Real than -the Actual. - -MARGARET agreed with Mr. Wheeler, and said that by reality she understood -anything incarnated,—whatever was tangible. She then went on to speak of -the Sphinx. What was it? - -ELISABETH HOAR seemed surprised at the question. Was it not one thing to -everybody? - -MARGARET called for her idea, but she would not give it. - -MARGARET said that to herself it represented the development of a -thought, founding itself upon the animal, until it grew upward into calm, -placid power. She revered these good ancients, who did not throw away any -of the gifts of God; who were neither materialists nor immaterialists, -but who made matter always subservient to the highest ends of the Spirit. - -WILLIAM WHITE asked if the festivals of the Gods, the highest source -of their influence over the people, did not show how little they had -penetrated to the spirit of things? - -MARGARET thought ambrosia and nectar were proper emblems of Divine Joy. -They were not to be taken literally. - -“But,” persisted WHITE, “the great body of the people thought them so.” - -WILLIAM STORY said, with happy grace, that the great _body_ of the people -might be excused for such a thought. - -MARGARET enjoyed the pun, and said that the great Greek body was sensuous -and ate, but that the Greek soul knew better than to suspect the Gods of -opening their mouths. - -E. P. P. waked up at this moment, and asked what Margaret would say to -Berkeley’s theory. - -MARGARET said she did not know what it was! - -E. P. P. said, the evolution of all things from the soul, the -non-existence of matter. - -JAMES P. CLARKE thought it very difficult to decide how far spirit and -matter were one. A man’s identity was not in the particles which came -and went every seven years, but in the spirit. Yet these particles -constituted the wall of separation between himself and others. His -identity was in his spirit. - -GEORGE RIPLEY begged leave to disagree. He thought we knew as much about -matter as about spirit, and that Berkeley’s theory was as good as any. - -MARGARET said that if God created matter, of course it was evolved from -spirit; that matter could not be antagonistic to that from which it was -evolved. To express a complete idea, we had only to say, “Jehovah, I am.” - -“Or,” CHARLES WHEELER added, “to be silent.” - -“Yes,” said MARGARET, “and in that lies the merit of Mythology. Every -faculty was, according to that, an incomplete statement. Therefore Mr. -Ripley did wrong to confound Minerva with the Logos.” - -E. P. P. did not see that Berkeley’s statement was answered. - -WILLIAM STORY came in with another pun. “If Berkeley thought so, it was -_no matter_!” - -Some stupid person spoiled the wit by trying to explain it, and the -question remained to us just as much matter as ever. - -They talked about the Sphinx again, yet said little. It holds more -meaning in its passive womb than talk will ever play the midwife to. -It was the child of the Destructive Element and Feeling,—Typhon and -Echidna,—the human heart experienced in misfortune touched by death. -Thought rooted in the actual and developed by tenderness was rooted in -this figure. - -“Everybody knows that Wisdom stings,” said MARGARET, and so we went on to -the serpent. - -Somebody spoke of the Greek Tartarus. - -IDA RUSSELL thought its torment was not acute, but consisted of the -deprivation of comforts. - -The wandering idleness of it would be intolerable to an active Greek, -ELISABETH HOAR thought, but more endurable than any device of a -priesthood. As for our serpent, no one seemed to know much about it. - -MARGARET said that we owed it so much, that _she_ felt in duty bound to -know something of it. - -JAMES F. CLARKE said that the Christian serpent was quite another thing. - -Everybody laughed at the idea of a _Christian_ serpent. - -WILLIAM WHITE professed great admiration for the reptile. We should have -had no Christianity but for its beguiling. - -MARGARET agreed!—and said she supposed everybody felt that. - -MRS. RUSSELL thought the casting of the skin very expressive. - -JAMES F. CLARKE gave Coleridge’s exposition, to the effect that the -serpent was the common understanding! It would touch and handle all -things, and even sought to be as the Gods, knowing good from evil. Its -undulating motion—its belly now on the ground, now off—expressed both -the aspiration and the subserviency of the creature. - -MARGARET asked if serpents ever swallowed their own tails? - -CHARLES WHEELER said that must be an arbitrary form. - -MARGARET replied, that she had been struck by the difference between the -Mexican and the Greek serpent. The Mexican was folded back upon itself. - -Not always, I said. Its tail is sometimes in its mouth, and the -variations seem to be occasioned by the architectural necessity. - -JAMES F. CLARKE spoke of a Virginia snake that moves in a circle, and -asked if when Mr. Emerson talked about “coming full circle” he was not -thinking of that? - -MARGARET laughed, and declared that serpent must be of Yankee invention. -Æsculapius bore two on his staff, Mercury two on his divining-rod, and -the cock was also sacred to Æsculapius. - -I asked if this did not indicate a certain subjection of these Gods to -Wisdom? - -Some questions written on paper were here read. One asked why Minerva was -born of the stroke of Vulcan, and why she was the patroness of weavers, -and what that had to do with the story of Arachne. - -MARGARET replied with ill temper to the first, that it was because Vulcan -held the hammer,—to the second, that she did not know. - -But was there really so little meaning in the fact that Mechanic Art so -ministered to Intelligent Will that she could afford to miss the point? - -She said we could see that Minerva was told to marry Vulcan, but -declined; would have nothing to do with the sooty cripple. - -SOPHIA RIPLEY said, aptly enough, that Minerva had been changing her mind -ever since! - -IDA RUSSELL thought that when Mechanic Art was married to Beauty, it -might charm even Wisdom. - -GEORGE RIPLEY said she might well have despised the brute force, but as -it grew into something more noble, have learned to love it. Dr. Dana[2] -was the servant of the Lowell corporation. In these days no corporation -could exist without its man of science. His salary was a mere pittance, -and when he made a discovery with which all Europe rang, he asked for a -part of the profits. “We will consider,” said the soulless corporation, -and they decided that they had a legitimate right to all that could be -made out of their servant! - -“Thus,” I said, “Wisdom sows for the Mechanic Art to reap?” - -“Exactly so,” was the reply; “and this contains the essence of the Yankee -philosophy.” - -The life of Wisdom was one long struggle for something beyond a merely -serviceable knowledge. Bending alike to art and artisan, she still -refused to love the latter till he had wooed Beauty to their common -service. But Wisdom has of late married Vulcan. He no longer limps, and -has washed his face in the springs of love and thought, and sits in -holiday robes beside his bride. - -Somebody said that the story of Arachne was an instance of the Goddess’s -vindictiveness. - -MARGARET hoped that the vindictiveness was a popular interpolation. If -so, the story of Marsyas shows that she was malicious. She brought his -misfortunes upon him. If her own voice was discordant, there was no -reason why his voice should please! - -“Divinities have a right to be indignant,” said somebody. Did Margaret -blush? - -In speaking of the artistic representations of Minerva, MARGARET said -some beautiful things. Minerva was as tall and large as she could be, -without being masculine. Her face was thoughtful and serene, without -being sweet. Her eye was so full and clear that it had no need to be deep. - -The talk was closed by Margaret’s reading the Essay that E. P. P. had -sent in, and the criticisms upon it. - -E. P. P. began by speaking of the _conservatism_ which disinclined -Jupiter to the birth of Minerva. - -“Yes,” MARGARET said, “the good was always opposed to the better.” - -E. P. P. then spoke of the Parthenon, upon which, according to the -Homeric Hymn, the story of Minerva’s birth was sculptured. - -MARGARET said it had been difficult to believe that the Greeks would put -so ugly a thing upon their temple, but the ruins showed a Vulcan with his -hammer in his hand, and the form of the Goddess hovering over the cloven -skull. - -Why, asked E. P. P., did Ulysses represent Wisdom in the Odyssey? - -MARGARET thought he represented the history of a thought in life, when -he tired us all out with his long story, and so pushed us to decision. - -E. P. P. alluded to the different conceptions of Minerva in the Iliad and -the Odyssey, and this led to the question of priority of composition. - -MARGARET thought the Odyssey was written when Homer was young and -romantic; but E. P. P. and myself stood out stoutly for the precedence of -the Iliad. I said, without the least bit of real knowledge, that I should -not wonder if there were two centuries between the poems, they seemed to -indicate such entirely different states of society; but certainly the -Odyssey was latest. - -CHARLES WHEELER said that the best scholars seemed all of one mind. The -Iliad was written first by Homer,—the Odyssey long after by another hand. - -E. P. P. said that there was a gem which represented Minerva as married -to a mortal, but she could tell nothing more about it. - -JONES VERY said that when Wisdom falls into decay we call it Genius! - -Does that mean that prophetic power fallen back from the moral nature to -the intellect is dwarfed accordingly? - - CAROLINE W. HEALEY. - - March 27, 1841. - - - - -V. - - - _April 2, 1841._ - -The story of Venus and Cupid and Psyche was discussed. - -MARGARET said that of Venus she had less to say than of either of the -preceding Deities! She was not the expression of a thought, but of -a fact. She was the Greek idea of a lovely woman,—the best physical -development of woman. When we have said, “It is,” we have said all. The -birth of Beauty was the only ideal thing about her. She sprang from the -wave, from the flux and reflux of things, from the undulating line. On -this Venus, transitoriness had set its seal. As we look at her, we feel -that she must change. Her loveliness is too fair to last. Her beauty -would pass next moment. She could not live a year, we think, without -losing something of her full grace. It was peculiarly Greek to create a -beautiful symbol, and to pause in the symbol. The Greeks were very apt to -do this. They did it effectually in the Goddess of Love. She was sportive -in all her amours. They had no idea of an Everlasting Love. They enjoyed -themselves too much to abstract themselves. Venus seemed to Margaret a -merely human creature. She was not the type of Universal Beauty: the -Greek eye was closed to that. Still, their own embodiment did not satisfy -their own need. They filled out their ideal with Venus Urania, Hebe, and -all the attendant Hours and Graces, yet were not satisfied. Then came the -fable of Psyche and her three Cupids. Venus was only a pretty girl! Her -cestus, her doves, her pets, her jealousies, all betray it. The Venus -Urania was more. _She_ was the child of Celestial Light. Hebe was born of -immortal bloom. To fill out the gaps in their conception, Eros, or Love -in Sadness, Cupid a frolicsome boy, and the more noble, more creative -Love which brooded over Chaos were evolved from their consciousness. -Psyche, who did not appear until the age of Augustus, who was too modern -to be mythological, yet glowing with mythic beauty, was only another -evidence of their imperfect idea. Her story expresses more than that of -Venus. It tells not only the story of human love, but represents the -pilgrimage of a soul. The jealousy of Venus was that which the good must -always feel toward the better which is to supersede it, and as soon as -Psyche looked upon her sleeping lover she became immortal. The soul in -the fulness of Love became conscious of Destiny. - -JAMES CLARKE asked what was the difference between the girl-mother—the -Madonna—and the Greek Venus. - -MARGARET replied, with more patience than I was capable of, that the -Madonna represented more than passing womanly beauty. She was prophetic, -and lived again in her child. - -Then, persisted JAMES F., why was Vulcan the _husband_ of Beauty, to -which Margaret gave no satisfactory answer. He then gave his own thought, -to which I can do no justice, although it was what I tried in vain to -say at the last conversation. It amounted to this,—that in seeking for -beauty we lose it, but in aiming at utility through hard labor we find -perfect proportion—and consequently perfect beauty. He said that he and -his sister Sarah had often spoken to each other about this, and he felt -that the time would come when essays would be written about our ships, -as we now write essays about the Pyramids and the Greek Art. Posterity -might find the proof of our search after beauty in the graceful prow -and swelling hold and tall, tapering mast or shrouds of shredded jet; -in the bellying canvas and the patron saint which watches the wake from -the stern. But we know that the ship, the most beautiful object in our -modern world, was the product of labor, gradually evoked, according to -the law of fitness, compass, and general proportion. To bring its form -into a natural relation to wind and wave, was to find perfect harmony -and beauty. At first the prow was too sharp, and the water had rushed -over it; the hold was too shallow, and she sat ungracefully where she now -rides as mistress. - -EMERSON quoted some German author to the same effect. - -MR. CLARKE said there was something in one of R. W. E.’s own Essays which -expressed the same thing. - -EMERSON laughed and said, “Very important authority,” and would have -changed the subject, when— - -WILLIAM WHITE said that it did not tally well with James Clarke’s theory -that the ugly steamer had succeeded the beautiful clipper. - -MR. CLARKE said the theory failed only because there was no noble end in -view. The steamer was not intended to be in harmony with Nature. - -EMERSON asked if the Greeks had no symbol for natural beauty. Several -were suggested that he would not accept, but he finally took Diana on -Charles Wheeler’s suggestion. - -WHEELER then spoke of the birth of Venus. He said many writers thought -the story as late as that of Psyche, and the line of Hesiod relating to -it an interpolation. - -MARGARET thought she should have suspected this if she had never heard -it. The thought it expressed was too comprehensive to be in keeping with -the remainder of her story. - -CHARLES WHEELER would not accept the criticism, but went on to talk about -the marriage of Venus with Mars, which had amazed Olympus. - -MARGARET said the Olympian Deities were like modern men, who talk to -women forever about their softness and delicacy, until women imagine -that the only good thing in man is a strong arm. The girl elopes with -a red coat, and the indignant lords of creation wonder why she did not -appreciate their modest merit and unobtrusive virtues. Poor Beauty _weeps -out_ the crimson stain upon her escutcheon in a long age of suffering. - -A laugh followed this bright sally, and then somebody said that Venus -once married Mercury. - -MARGARET declared that must be an interpolation, for there were no points -of sympathy between the Goddess of beauty and the God of craft. - -JAMES CLARKE did not know about that; he thought that the finish and -completeness of the late robbery of Davis, Palmer, & Co. constituted a -_kind of beauty_! - -MARGARET said that affair was altogether grand; she had never heard of -anything so Greek as Williamson’s exclaiming, “Gentlemen! you will not -deprive me of the implements of my trade?” She could not help respecting -his impudence! The Greeks ought to be respected for developing every -human faculty into deity. She thought lying, stealing, and so forth -only excesses of a good faculty; and so did the Greeks, for in their -mistaken way they had deified Mercury. The Spartans taught their children -to steal, and the Greeks universally acknowledged that to cheat was -honorable if it could be concealed. - -I remembered the passage in the “Republic” where Polemarchus confesses -that he had learned from Homer to admire Autolycus, grand sire of -Ulysses, distinguished above all men for his thefts and oaths! -Thrasymachus said that the unjust were both prudent and good, if they -were able to commit injustice to _perfection_! Is the immortality of -Autolycus the destiny of Williamson? - -WHEELER said there certainly was a well authenticated marriage between -Venus and Mercury. - -I could not help thinking it might be an astral connection that was -indicated. On that remarkable day of his birth, Mercury was not content -with stealing the divining-rod from Apollo; he took also the cestus from -Venus, the voice from Neptune, the sword from Mars, the will from Zeus, -and his tools from Vulcan! Sagacity compassed all the deeps of divinity -to reach its end. - -IDA RUSSELL asked if Venus and Astarte were not the same. - -MARGARET said Astarte belonged to the stars. - -Did not Venus, I wonder? But of course they are creations far asunder as -the poles. - -CHARLES WHEELER thought Astarte and Venus Urania were the same. - -IDA said that could not be. The first statues of Astarte were rough -blocks of wood, with veiled heads. - -So, I said, were all first statues of Deities; so that was no argument. - -When JAMES CLARKE asked Margaret to compare Venus with the Madonna, a -curious talk arose between Alcott, Margaret, Charles Wheeler, and Emerson. - -ALCOTT wanted to know why Christ was not as much an impersonation of a -human faculty as either of the Greek Deities! - -MARGARET said Jesus was not a thought. He was born on the earth, and -lived out a thought. He was no abstraction to her, but a brother. - -ALCOTT wanted to know whether a purer mythology, suited to the wants -of coming time, might not arise from the mixed mythology of Persians, -Greeks, and Christians! - -A very confusing and tiresome talk arose thereupon, which Charles Wheeler -smiled at, but did not join in, and which profited nobody. - - CAROLINE WELLS HEALEY. - - April 3, 1841. - - - - -VI. - -CUPID AND PSYCHE. - - - _April 9, 1841._ - -MARGARET thought it would be very impertinent to begin by telling what -everybody knew,—the old story of Cupid and Psyche. - -E. P. P. declared that Margaret never told it twice alike, and at last -she yielded and said:— - -The beautiful young princess Psyche was envied by Venus, who sent Eros -to destroy her; but the God, finding Psyche wholly lovely, wedded her. -They lived happily until Psyche began to doubt. Eros had told her that -she must not seek to know him; but curiosity prevailed over faith, and -in looking at him as he slept she wounded and waked him. He left her in -dismay; and as a punishment the three trials which are the lot of mortals -were awarded to her. She must sort grain, she must bring three drops -from the river Styx, and must get the box of beauty from Proserpine. The -birds helped her with the grain; but when she reached the banks of the -Styx and stooped to fulfil the second task, she found the water too dark, -too cold, and the eagle came to her aid. At the prospect of the third -trial her soul sank; she refused to undertake it; but, winning from one -of the Gods the secret of self-dependence, she set off for Tartarus, -gave the usual sop to Cerberus, and returned with her prize. But she was -“possessed” with the idea that the treasures the box contained might -restore to her her husband’s love, and she opened the box as she came. -The noxious vapors which issued from it deprived her of consciousness, -and she fell. Eros, who had flown to seek her as soon as his wound was -healed, brought her the gift of Immortality which he had begged of -Jupiter. - -ELISABETH HOAR asked what had become of Psyche’s sisters, whose -interference was a striking point in the story. - -MARGARET said she knew nothing of them, and wished Miss Hoar would tell -us. Her own knowledge of the story was gained entirely from Raphael’s -original studies, and his frescos on the walls of a Roman palace. - -ELISABETH HOAR recapitulated. The parents of Psyche were ordered by the -angry Venus to expose her upon a high mountain, when Zephyr carried her -to the embraces of Love, who dwelt in the depths of a quiet valley hard -by. Her sisters came to bewail her death, and Psyche begged Love to let -Zephyr bring them to rejoice in her happiness. For some time he refused, -telling her that it was not for her good, and that she could be happy -without them. This our foolish Psyche would not believe, and at last they -were permitted to come, only she must not tell them the little she knew -about her husband. - -The first time Psyche had sent them away loaded with gifts. They had -questioned her about her husband, and Psyche replied that he was only -a lovely child. The year went round, and again the lovely bride longed -for her sisters’ presence. Again the God entreated her to be patient, -assuring her that if they came it would only be to make her miserable. -Psyche could not be quieted. Again they came, again they questioned. She -forgot the story she had previously told, and replied that he was an old -man, bent with years, but very kind to her. Then the envious women saw -that Psyche was herself ignorant of his true nature. They told her that -he was a dragon, and meant to devour her; that they had themselves seen -him as he passed through the fields. They begged her to take a knife and -lamp and kill him as he slept. The frightened Psyche consented. - -The God was sleeping in radiant beauty at her side, and as she gazed -upon him she drew an arrow from his quiver and carelessly scratched -her finger. Impassioned by the wound, she bent over him, and a drop of -scalding oil fell from her lamp. Angry and confused, the God awoke, and, -irritated by the pain, flew away. Psyche clung to him; but she could -not support herself, and he was too angry to hold her. She fell to the -ground, and he, perched upon a neighboring tree, reproached her. - -MARGARET did not know this, but said she remembered that Psyche tried to -drown herself. - -ELISABETH said that was later. She despaired, and threw herself into -the river; but the river pitied her, and bore her to the shore. Venus, -growing tired of her guest, sent Mercury to advertise her. Psyche yielded -to the terms of the Goddess, rendered herself up, and was busy sorting -the gifts in the temple of Beauty when Custom was sent to berate her. - -This, I suppose, is a condensation of the lovely allegory of Apuleius in -the second century of our era, but it seems to me Elisabeth made some -additions. - -MARGARET said that everybody had to contend with the meddlesome sisters. -They were at the bottom of every fairy story, from that of Psyche to -Beauty and the Beast. - -ELISABETH HOAR said it was always with the young soul as it was with -Psyche. It could give no account of the love which made it so happy. - -So, I said, every human heart shrivels under a curious touch. Love -is angry that we wound him, and if he ever does return it is with -Immortality in his hand. When custom berates, God accepts. - -JAMES CLARKE asked if there was not a celebrated statue of Cupid and -Psyche. - -MARGARET had only heard of Canova’s, but James said he was sure there was -one older. - -WILLIAM STORY asked if it were older than Apuleius, but James did not -know. - -IDA RUSSELL said it was wrong for Psyche to look. - -Yes, MARGARET said, but her temptations were strong; and if they had -not come through her sisters, they must have come through her own soul. -Everything was produced by antagonism. This morning she had taken up -Kreitzer, meaning to open the Greek volume, but took up the Indian. In -that Mythology which William Story called deep and all-embracing there -were the antagonist principles of Vishnu, or unclouded innocence, and -Brahm, who could only become pure by wading through all wickedness. There -seemed to be a need of sin, to work out salvation for human beings. - -EMERSON said faith should work out that salvation. It was man’s privilege -to resist the evil, to strive triumphantly; to recognise it—never! Good -was always present to the soul,—was all the true soul took note of. It -was a duty not to look! - -MARGARET thought it the climax of sin to despair. She believed evil to -be a good in the grand scheme of things. She would not recognize it as a -blunder. She must consider its scope a noble one. In one word, she would -not accept the world—for she felt within herself the power to reject -it—did she not believe evil working in it for good! Man had gained more -than he lost by his fall. The ninety-nine sheep in the parable were of -less value than the “lost found,” over which there was joy in heaven. - -E. P. P. spoke of the Tree of Life,—which would have made immortal those -who ate of the Tree of Knowledge. - -CAROLINE STURGIS said that this probation was what she could not -comprehend. We began at the circumference, and if we fulfilled our -destiny must end by being near the centre. How much better to have begun -there! Why could not God have made it so? - -WILLIAM STORY began to say that God must seek the best good of all -his creatures; but Caroline interrupted him by saying that there was -certainly more good at the centre than at the circumference. - -WILLIAM WHITE thought all this good, better, and best very puzzling. - -MARGARET asked Caroline if she could not see probation to be a good, as -she had herself defined it? - -Are we better then, than God? asked CAROLINE. - -Not better, replied MARGARET, for we cannot compare dissimilar things. - -WILLIAM WHITE asked if any one could be more than good, more than pure. - -WILLIAM STORY said perfection had its degrees! - -WHITE said, How can you progress after you have reached your goal? - -As if any live man ever _did_ reach his goal! said I. - -Is there any progress for God? retorted he. - -Not any, for that is a contradiction in terms, I said; but surely you -conceive of it for souls in heaven? - -MARGARET said something about the Gospel injunction to be perfect even -as our Father in Heaven is perfect. Does not “even as” mean “after the -pattern of”? Does it involve the _nature_, as well as the _degree_? - -EMERSON interrupted quickly, “We are not finite.” - -Everybody smiled; but the best answer to this is found in the fact, that -we never conceive of ourselves as infinite and at rest,—only as reaching -after the Infinite in our motion. - -WHITE said to Caroline Sturgis, “If evil brings knowledge of good, is it -not a gain?” - -WILLIAM STORY talked nobly, something to this effect: That good and evil -were related terms. If both did not exist, neither could, antagonism -being the spring of most things in the universe. - -MARGARET went back to Cupid, and said that in Raphael’s original studies -Cupid was always a boy,—in his frescos, a youth, almost a man. She spoke -of the difference of expression which he gave to his Venus and his -Psyche, especially in the eye. That of Psyche was deep and thoughtful. -The distinction extended to their attendant Cupids, and was most marked -in the Psyche when she takes the cup of Immortality from her husband. - -MARGARET wanted to pass on to Diana, but there were too many clergymen -in the company. Everybody was interested in somebody nearer at hand, and -views of the unchanging Providence were next presented. - -MARGARET said God was the background against which all creation was -thrown. - -WILLIAM STORY asked if she did not think He was greater than his -creatures? - -“Always beyond,” was MARGARET’S reply. - -Creation, STORY said, was rather the exponent of a _Love_ which _must -bless_, than of an activity which must act. It was a Paternal power that -_ruled_, not an autocratic power which _fathered_ us. - -MARGARET said that the story of Cupid and Psyche was the story of -redemption. It contained the seeds of the doctrine of election,—saving by -grace, and so on! - -A good many queer things were said on various points touched by this. - -EMERSON said, that to imagine it possible to fall was to _begin_ to fall. - -E. P. P. got into a little maze trying to introduce Margaret and R. W. -E. to each other,—a consummation which, however devoutly to be wished, -will never happen! - -JAMES CLARKE told her that she was just where Paul was when he said, -“What then? Shall I sin, that Grace may the more abound?” - -EMERSON said the woodlands could tell us most about Diana, about whom we -contrived to say very little. The omission of orgies in her worship was -dwelt upon. Her pure and sacred character with the Athenians was compared -to that of the Diana of Ephesus, whose orgies were not unusual, and who -was considered as a bountiful mother rather than as a virgin huntress. - -IDA RUSSELL said that _her_ Mythology accused Diana of being the mother -of fifty sons and fifty daughters! - -MARGARET laughed, and said that certainly was Diana of Ephesus! - -The maddening influence of moonlight was commented upon, as if it were a -fable; but WILLIAM STORY said it was a fact. In tropical regions very sad -consequences resulted from long gazing on the moonlight or sleeping in -it. In one town he had known sixteen persons bewildered in this way. - -WILLIAM WHITE said that in a late book of Nichols it was contended that -the moon had some light of her own, because she shows a brazen color even -under eclipse, when the dark side of the earth is toward her. But why may -she not gather stellar light from the whole universe, as the earth seems -to? - -SALLIE GARDINER said something to William Story in a low voice. He -laughed, and said he had been thinking of the consequences of his theory. - -MARGARET asked what he was talking about. - -STORY said it was an application of eclipses to his theory that love -was the motive to creation. If the sun is beneficent truth shorn of its -beams, it would be like the moon, no better than brass! - -CAROLINE STURGIS asked why the Mahomedans bore the crescent. - -WILLIAM WHITE said because of some change in the moon which occurred at -the time of the Hegira. - -WILLIAM STORY said that the worshippers at Mecca carried the crescent -before Mahomet’s time. There is a crescent on the black stone. - -Both stories may be true. There is certainly a crescent on the old -Byzantine coin, or besant. - -IDA RUSSELL said something about Diana being wedded. - -This reminded E. P. P. of Minerva’s marriage, discussed last week. She -said that Charles Wheeler had seen the gem of which she then spoke, and -that Neptune was the favored suitor. - -WILLIAM STORY said the Greeks could not wed Neptune to Diana, for the -tides were too low in the Mediterranean! - - C. W. HEALEY. - - April 10, 1841. - - - - -VII. - -PLUTO AND TARTARUS. - - - _April 15, 1841._ - -MARGARET said very little about Pluto. On the first evening she had -called him the depth of things, and JAMES CLARKE now had a good deal -to say upon the three ideas which she thought pervaded the Greek -mythology,—the source, the depth, and the extent or flow of thought. He -said that this distinction had struck him very forcibly when Margaret -first mentioned it. We speak of widely diffused thought, of aspiring and -profound thought; of sympathetic, exalted, or deep feeling,—and this -seemed to exhaust language. It was through the depths of feeling and -experience that we came to the profound of thought. - -E. P. P. said, “There is no genius in happiness.” Not a very intelligible -statement. - -MARGARET said, “There is nothing worth knowing that has not some penalty -attached to it. We pay it the more willingly in proportion as we grow -wise. Depth, altitude, diffusion, are the three births of Time. It is -this which makes the German cover the operations of the miner with a -mystic veil. Bostonians laugh at the Germans because they think.” - -WHEELER liked what Mr. Clarke said, and added that there was meaning in -the Irish phrase, “_Lower me up_.” - -MARGARET said that all the punishments of Tartarus expressed baffled -effort, the penalty least endurable to the active Greek. - -MR. MACK thought it singular that in every nation where the belief in -Tartarus had prevailed, an exact locality had always been assigned to it. - -WILLIAM WHITE said that, so long as anybody could point out the locality -of the garden of Eden, we had no need to smile at the locality of a -Tartarus or an Elysium. - -I do not think these “myths” belong to the same class. - -CHARLES WHEELER quoted Champollion to the effect that the Styx was only -a small river flowing between the Temple at Thebes and a neighboring -“place of tombs.” The ferryman was named Charon, and the Egyptian habit -of judging the dead probably gave rise to the rest of the fable. - -MARGARET said, “This was very natural.” She asked Mr. Wheeler the meaning -of certain names. - -Phlegethon, he answered, meant burning fire; Acheron, anguish. - -Why did not somebody say that the lifeless current of the Styx first -tempted Homer to give it to the Infernals? It is in reality a river of -Epeiros. - -The Styx, WHEELER said, was a cold unhealthy stream, like that which -caused the death of Alexander. It flowed slowly through Acadia, but was -supposed to take its rise in Hades. Lethe is a river near the Syrtus in -Africa. It disappears in the sand, but rises again. Hence its name. - -MR. WHEELER had some difficulty in explaining certain inconsistencies in -the poets. - -MR. CLARKE quoted the remark of Achilles (?) concerning Elysium,—that a -day of hard labor on earth was preferable to an eternity of pleasure in -Elysian fields! - -MARGARET said that in Elysium, as in Tartarus, souls waited. These -restless Greeks could do nothing. They were cut off from action, which -was their delight. All their punishments seem to consist of frustrated -effort,—the consequence of some presumption. Tantalus was ever thirsty -and ever famished because he had aspired to nectar and ambrosia. Ixion, -who would have scaled the heavens, was condemned to incessant revolution -upon a wheel, which never paused yet never accomplished anything. The -Danaides, who murdered the love which wooed them, were doomed to fill a -broken vessel with water which as constantly escaped. Sisyphus, who had -never labored except for a selfish end, was to roll a stone up hill, -which as constantly rolled down,—fit emblem of all selfish labor. As for -Tityrus, who sought to violate the secrets of Nature, the vulture fed -always upon his entrails. - -WHEELER said this did not represent frustrated effort. - -MARGARET said, No: this was remorse; but there was an admirable instance -of the former given by Goethe, of a man who wove rope from the sedges -which grew upon the banks of Lethe, for an ass who continually devoured -it. The moral seemed to be that the ass could just as well have eaten -them unwoven. Goethe goes on to say that the Greeks only thought that the -poor man had a prodigal wife, but that the moderns would look deeper and -see more in the fable. - -We all weave sedges for asses to eat, thought I. - -MARGARET seemed to think that every heart might have an experience which -would correspond to Tartarus. Every hero must visit it at least once. - -I suggested Pluto, Persephone, the Fates, the Gorgons, the Furies, and -Cerberus. Pluto was equal to Neptune and Jupiter. - -MARGARET continued: Hades was not given to Pluto to mark defective -character, but simply as his kingdom. His wants were all supplied. The -bride Olympus refused him he was permitted to steal from earth while -she gathered flowers. Persephone, seed of all things, must dwell in the -dark; but another legend tells us that if she had been willing to leave -her veil, she might have stolen away. There was a meaning in her being -forbidden to eat in the infernal regions. Fate said, “Do not touch what -you don’t want.” Psyche was forbidden to partake of the regal banquet -Persephone spread. Seeking for Immortality, this soul, like every other, -must be content to eat bitter bread. - -There was then a talk about Cerberus and the Gorgons. - -MR. CLARKE said that in the New Testament the dog seemed to stand for -popular prejudice. The swine stood for what _could_ not, the dog for what -_would_ not, be convinced. - -Yes, MARGARET said, the wolf is a misanthropic dog. He has little dignity. - -IDA RUSSELL said Cerberus stood for the temperaments. - -Well, MARGARET said, that being so, she liked the Greeks for making no -allowance for the lymphatic. To what, she continued, do we offer the -first sop, as we pass through life? As for the Gorgons, every one, she -thought, would find his own interpretation of them. To her there was no -Gorgon but _apathy_; there is nothing in creation that will so soon turn -a live man into stone. These Gorgons were three women, who used one eye -and one tooth between them,—except Medusa, who was beautiful and perfect. -Her hair had provoked the envy of Minerva, and was changed into serpents. -Margaret had a copy of a gem, which Marion Dwight had made for her, which -showed this. - -E. P. P. asked if Perseus did not endeavor to show Medusa her own head. - -MARGARET said that might well rouse her! - -CHARLES WHEELER explained. Perseus only used a mirror given him by -Minerva to avoid looking at the Gorgon. - -CAROLINE STURGIS said that the old woman who keeps house for Helen in the -second part of “Faust” was a Gorgon to her. - -This dragged a critical analysis of the “Faust” forward. - -MARGARET said the Seeker represents the Spirit of the Age. He never -sinned save by yielding, and yet he was emphatically _saved by grace_. -It was difficult to see what Goethe meant until he got to the Tower of -the Middle Ages. That made all clear. - -CHARLES WHEELER said, the reader would a great deal rather that Faust -went to the Devil than not! - -MARGARET defended Goethe’s way of exhibiting character, of which Wilhelm -Meister was an instance. Goethe said to himself, What should I do with a -hero in such rascally society? Meister preferred the Brahmal experience. - -E. P. P. asked if this moral indifference was well? - -MARGARET replied, that it was just as frightful as any other Gorgon. If -we are to have a purely intellectual development, it was well for a man -like Goethe to represent it. To choose fairly between evil and good, the -intellect must regard both with indifference. - -Somebody asked how the Gorgon’s head came to be on the Ægis of Minerva? - -If Apathy is the Gorgon, surely Wisdom needs it! - -Then we began to talk about Theseus in connection with Tartarus. Why -should he sit forever on a stone? - -MARGARET thought he represented reform! - -MR. MACK said reform checked itself by its own fanaticism. - -WHEELER, in this connection, asked after the Greek notion of -accountability. - -MARGARET did not think the Greeks had any. - -WHEELER assured her to the contrary, and told anecdotes to prove it. He -spoke of the fatal transmission of guilt in one family, generation after -generation. - -MARGARET said the Greeks never rejected facts. - -IDA RUSSELL spoke of the last King of Athens, Codrus, supposed to have -been punished for the crimes of his ancestors. - -WHEELER said that when the Greeks killed some ambassadors, they felt so -sure that Heaven would avenge the sin that they sent two citizens to -expiate it; but Darius, to whom they were sent, refused to release the -Greeks from their impending doom. - -MARGARET said the moment such a supposition was started, there were -plenty of facts to sustain it. Orestes is the purified victim of his -family. The old Greeks had made no complete statement of their destiny or -their accountability. - -E. P. P. said they had made it in art. - - C. W. HEALEY. - - April 16, 1841. - - - - -VIII. - -MERCURY AND ORPHEUS. - - - _April 22, 1841._ - -MARGARET said it surprised her that young men did not seek to be -Mercuries. She said that one of the ugliest young men that she knew had -become so enraptured with one of Raphael’s Mercuries, that he confessed -to her that he was never alone without trying to assume its attitude -before the glass. She said she could not help laughing at the image he -suggested, an ugly figure in high-heeled boots and a strait-coat in the -act of flying, commissioned with every grace from Heaven to men! but she -respected the feeling, and thought every sensitive soul must share it. - -EMERSON had sent Sophia Peabody several fine engravings. One of these, a -Correggio, represented a woman of Parma as a Madonna. It might give any -woman a similar desire. - -William Story, Frank Shaw, Mr. Mack and his friends, Mrs. Ripley, Ida -Russell, and Mrs. S. G. Ward were all missing to-night. - -MARGARET said that she was sorry she had allowed our subject to embrace -so much. The Grecian Mercury seemed to mean so little that she had not -thought of the depth and difficulty connected with the Egyptian Hermes. -Among the Greeks, Ceres, Persephone, and Juno represent the productive -faculties, Jupiter and Apollo the divine, and Mercury simply the human -understanding, the God of eloquence and of thieves. - -MARIANNE JACKSON thought it strange that he should be at once the God of -persuasion and the Deity of theft! - -MARGARET said eloquence was a kind of thieving! - -Did the Greeks so consider it? asked MARIANNE. - -MARGARET said, Yes, more than any nation in the world, and taught their -children so to do; and in fact such mental recognitions were what -distinguished the nation from all other peoples. - -The Egyptian Hermes represented the whole intellectual progress of -man. If one made a discovery it was signed Hermes, and under that name -transmitted to posterity. Hence the forty volumes of Hermetic theology, -philosophy, and so on. Individuals were merged in the God. Hermes was -always the mediator, the peacemaker, and it was in this relation that the -beautiful story was told of the caduceus. Mercury has originally only -the divining-rod which Apollo had given him, but, finding two serpents -fighting one day, he pacified them, and had ever after the right to bear -them embracing on his rod. There was another story, Margaret said, which -she could not understand,—the story of his obtaining the head of the -Ibis from Osiris. Hermes kept the _first_ or outside gates of Heaven, a -significant fact typically considered. - -I am sure there is something in Heeren’s researches about the Ibis story, -but Caroline Sturgis said, No. - -WILLIAM WHITE asked if the God gave the name to the planet? - -MARGARET said, Yes; and it was given because it stood nearest the sun. - -E. P. P. said Plutarch had written something about Hermes in his “Morals.” - -MARGARET said, Perhaps so, but she didn’t know, as she never _could_ read -them. Plutarch went round and round a story; presented all the corners -of it, told all the pretty bits of gossip he could find, instead of -penetrating to its secret. So she preferred his anecdotes of Heroes to -his Parallels or Essays. - -I said, in surprise, how much I liked the “Morals.” - -“Yes,” MARGARET said, “even Emerson paid the book the high compliment of -calling it his tuning-key, when he was about to write.” - -E. P. P. said Coleridge was _her own_ tuning-key, and asked Margaret if -she had no such friendly instigator. - -MARGARET said she could keep up no intimacy with books. She loved a -book dearly for a while; but as soon as she began to look out a nice -Morocco cover for her favorite, she was sure to take a disgust to it, -to outgrow it. She did not mean that she outgrew the author, but that, -having received all from him that he could give her, he tired her. That -had even been the case with Shakespeare! For several years he was her -very life; then she gave him up. About two years ago she had occasion -to look into “Hamlet,” and then wished to refresh her love, but found -it impossible. It was the same with Ovid, whose luxuriant fancy had -delighted her girlhood. She took him up, and read a little with all her -youthful glow; but it would not last. Friends must part, but why need -we part from our books? She regretted her oddity, for she lost a great -solace by it. - -She proceeded to contrast the Apollo with Mercury. In Egypt, Hermes was -the experimental Deity, the Brahma. - -CAROLINE STURGIS asked what the Hermes on the door-posts of the Athenian -houses meant. - -MARGARET thought that he posed there as a messenger, an opener of the -gates merely, and then spoke of several Mercuries by Raphael. One she -knew, so full of beauty and grace that it seemed a single trumpet-tone. -Another all loveliness was handing the cup of life to Psyche. She -wondered that such symbols as Apollo and Mercury did not inspire all -young men with ardor, and make them something better than young men -usually are. - -WILLIAM WHITE said Apollo was too far beyond the average man to do this; -but that Mercury, graceful and vivacious, would naturally attract the -attention. - -MARGARET asked if he would be an easier model to imitate, and then -repeated her anecdote about the ugly youth who longed to be a Mercury. - -WILLIAM said that if his faith had been strong enough, the transformation -might have taken place. - -Query—what is meant by strong _enough_? - -MARGARET spoke of the Egyptian Osiris in his relation to Hermes, and said -that she did not like _him_ to be confounded with the Apollo. He was in -reality the Egyptian Jove. - -This led me to speak of the Orphic Hymn in which Apollo is addressed as -“immortal Jove.” - -MARGARET said she had discovered very little about Orpheus. In relation -to the five points of Orphic theology, she had lately read a posthumous -leaf from Goethe’s Journal. The existence of a Dæmon seemed to be a -favorite idea of his. He did not believe with Emerson that all things -were in our own souls, but that they existed in _the original souls_, -(does anybody know what that means?) and we must go out to seek them. -This notion Goethe thought verified by his own experience. Goethe’s -works, Margaret thought, had more variety than anybody’s except -Shakespeare’s. His powers of observation seemed to condense his genius. - -WILLIAM WHITE wondered why Goethe showed such tenderness for Byron. - -MARGARET said that in every important sense Byron was his very opposite; -but Goethe hardly looked upon him as a responsible being. He was rather -the instrument of a _higher_ power. He was the exponent of his period. - -SOPHIA PEABODY had been making a drawing of Crawford’s Orpheus at the -Athenæum. It was here brought down for me to see. - -At Sophia’s request, MARGARET repeated a sonnet she had written on it. -She recited it wretchedly, but the sonnet was pleasant. - -I spoke of Bode’s Essay on the Orphic Poetry, and sympathized in his view -of the spuriousness of the Hymns. They might have been signed Orpheus, -however, as other things were signed Hermes, simply because they were -exponents of Orphic thought. - -MARGARET dilated on this Orphic thought. - -I quoted Proclus in his Commentary on Plato’s “Republic” as follows:— - - “Mars perpetually discerns and nourishes, and constantly - excites the contrarieties of the Universe, that the world may - exist perfect and entire in all its parts; but requires the - assistance of Venus, that he may bring order and harmony into - things contrary and discordant. - - “Vulcan adorns by his art the sensible universe, which he - fills with certain natural impulses, powers, and proportions; - but _he_ requires the assistance of Venus, that he may invest - material effects with beauty, and by this means secure the - comeliness of the world. Venus is the source of all the - harmony and analogy in the Universe, and of the union of form - with matter, connecting and comprehending the powers of the - elements. Although this Goddess ranks among the supermundane - divinities, yet her principal employment consists in - beautifully illuminating the order, harmony, and communion of - all mundane concerns.” - -I asked MARGARET if this was not something like her own thought,—this -Venus, for example, was it not better than that we got from Greek art? - -She said it was the primal idea, but she did not attach much importance -to chronology. Philosophy must decide the age of a thought. - -I gave her as good an abstract of Bode’s theory as I could. - -WILLIAM WHITE took the drawing of Orpheus from me, and, while speaking of -its beauty, said it always made him angry to think of the deterioration -of the human figure. He thought it ought to have been prevented, and -that his ancestors had deprived him of his rights. - -Upon this, MARGARET entered into a lively disquisition upon masculine -beauty. She said the best specimens of it she had ever seen were a -Southern oddity named Hutchinson and some Cambridge students who came -from Virginia. - -We lost a finer talk to-night through the inclemency of the weather. -WHEELER was to have come with a great stock of information. Had he done -so, I need not have quoted Bode or Proclus. - - CAROLINE W. HEALEY. - - April 23, 1841. - - - - -IX. - -HERMES AND ORPHEUS. - - - _April 29, 1841._ - -We did not have a very bright talk. There were few present, and we had -only the subject of last week. MARGARET did not speak at length. WHEELER -had been ill, and his physician prescribed light diet of both body and -mind. - -Somebody spoke of Mercury sweeping the courts of the Gods, but that -suggested nothing to Margaret. - -SARAH SHAW had a pin, with a Mercury on it, represented as holding the -head of a goat. - -MARGARET had never seen anything that would explain it, and there was -some dispute about it. - -E. P. P. said that, according to the Orphic Hymn, Mercury sought the love -of Dryope under the form of a goat. Pan was the fruit of that amour. In -this form also he wooed Diana. - -We wandered from our subject a little, to hear MR. MACK talk about the -Gorgons. He thought they stood for the three sides of human nature. -Medusa, the chief care-taker, the body, was the only one not immortal, -and the only one beautiful. Stheno and Euryale, wide-extended force -and wide-extended scope, represented spirit and intellect, essentially -immortal. The changing of Medusa’s curls (or elements of strength) into -serpents represented the fall. It was not the Gorgons who had but one eye -and one tooth between them, but three sister guardians, whom Perseus was -compelled to destroy before he could reach Medusa. - -MR. MACK did not tell us why human nature so divided had a certain -petrifying power! - -E. P. P. thought the intellect, not the body, was the care-taker. -Mr. Mack tried in vain to explain, owing, I think, to his German -misconception of words. Certainly the five senses are the _providers_, -which was what he must have meant. - -MARGARET liked his theory, because there was a place in it for sin! She -disliked failure. Perhaps we all had perceived her attachment to evil! -Not that she wished men to fall into it, but it must be accepted as one -means of final good. - -The only copies of Bode belong to Edward Everett and Theodore Parker. -Neither is at this moment to be had. The talk turned on the age of the -Orphic idea. - -The Orphic Hymns, WHEELER said, were merely hymns of initiation into -the Orphic mysteries. They were altered by every successive priesthood, -and finally by the Christian Platonists. Those now remaining were -undoubtedly their work. Perhaps the ancient formulas were still hidden -in them. We know the beautiful story of Orpheus. If he indeed represents -many, yet all that has been said of him is also true of one. - -MR. MACK declared that Eurydice represented the true faith! She was -killed by an envenomed serpent, which might possibly stand for an enraged -priesthood! - -I got a little impatient here, and said I did not care to know about the -Hymns; but the Orphic idea, which made Scaliger speak of the Hymns as the -“Liturgy of Satan,”—how old was that? - -MARGARET could not guess why he called them so. - -CHARLES WHEELER said that, since they made a heathen worship attractive, -perhaps he fancied them a device of the Evil One! - -Too great a compliment to Scaliger, I thought. - -MARGARET had no objection to Orpheus as crowning an age; she liked that -multitudes should produce one. - -CHARLES WHEELER said that Carlyle had spoken of Orpheus as standing in -such a relation to the Greeks as Odin bore to the Scandinavians. - -MARGARET said at this point (I don’t see with what pertinency) that -Carlyle displeased her by making so much of mere men. - -JAMES CLARKE quoted Milton, speaking of himself among the revellers of -the Stuart Court, as like Orpheus among the Bacchanals. - -I said that Bode placed Homer in the tenth century before Christ, and -Orpheus in the age just preceding, say the thirteenth century before. - -MR. MACK thought all that mere conjecture. - -I told him it made a good deal of difference to me whether the Orphic -Mythology came before or after that of Homer. Had man grown out of the -noble and into the base idea? Was all our knowledge only memory? Had the -Orphic fancies no beauty till the Platonic Christians shaped them? - -MARGARET responded to what I said, that she did not like a mind always -looking back. - -E. P. P. said there was a great deal of consolation in it. Memory was -prophecy. She didn’t like such a mind, but since she happened to have it -she wanted support for it. - -MR. MACK said all history offered such support. - -CHARLES WHEELER didn’t like to believe it, but felt that he must. He -spoke of the Golden Age. - -MARGARET said every nation looked back to this; but, after all, it was -only the ideal. The past was a curtain on which they embroidered their -pictures of the present. - -WILLIAM WHITE said that all great men looked to the appreciation of the -future. We are too near to the present. - -MARGARET agreed. - -E. P. P. said, all the science of Europe could not offer anything like -the old Egyptian lore. - -MARGARET said the moderns needed the assistance of a despotic government. - -CHARLES WHEELER spoke of the monuments in Central America; but before he -could utter what was in his mind, MARGARET interrupted, saying that all -the greatness of the Mexicans only sufficed to show their littleness. We -might have lost in grandeur and piety, but we had gained in a thousand -tag-rag ways. - -MRS. FARRAR whispered to me, “Write that down!” and I have done it. - -CHARLES WHEELER said that late discoveries proved that there was a -complete knowledge of electricity among the ancients. There were -lightning-rods on the temple at Jerusalem, and they are described by -Josephus, who however does not know what they are. - -MARGARET and I clung to the “tag-rag” gain. - -CHARLES WHEELER agreed with me in thinking the Orphic Hymns of very late -origin. - -MARGARET could not see the use of creating a race of giants to prepare -the earth for pygmies! If these must exist, why not in some other sphere? -She referred to the beautiful Persian fable. The _first_ was God, of -course; since man may always revert to Him, what matter about the giants? - -I said that primitive ages were supposed to be innocent rather than great. - -MARGARET said the Persian fable bore to the same point as the Vishnu -and Brahma. It was antagonism that produced all things. The universe at -first was one Conscious Being,—“I am;” no word, no darkness, no light. -This Conscious Being needed to know itself, and it passed into darkness -and light and a third being,—the Mediator between the two. This Trinity -produced ideals,—men, animals, things; and after a period of twelve -thousand years all return again into the One, who has gained by the -phenomena only a multiplied consciousness. - -“Were they _merged_?” asked CHARLES WHEELER. - -MARGARET said, “No! once created, they could not lose identity.” - - C. W. HEALEY. - - April 30, 1841. - - - - -X. - -BACCHUS AND THE DEMIGODS. - - - _May 6, 1841._ - -Few present. Our last talk, and we were all dull. For my part, Bacchus -does not inspire me, and I was sad because it was the last time that I -should see Margaret. She does not love me; I could not venture to follow -her into her own home, and I love her so much! Her life hangs on a -thread. Her face is full of the marks of pain. Young as I am, I feel old -when I look at her. - -MARGARET spoke of Hercules as representing the course of the solar year. -The three apples were the three seasons of four months each into which -the ancients divided it. The twelve labors were the twelve signs. - -E. P. P. accepted this, and spoke of Bryant’s book, which Margaret did -not like. - -MARGARET said Bryant forced every fact to be a point in a case. Bending -each to his theory, he falsified it. She wished English people would -be content, like the wiser Germans, to amass classified facts on which -original minds could act. She liked to see the Germans so content to -throw their gifts upon the pile to go down to posterity, though the pile -might carry no record of the collectors. She spoke of Kreitzer, whose -book she was now reading, who coolly told his readers that he should not -classify a second edition afresh, for his French translator had done it -well enough, and if readers were not satisfied with his own work, they -must have recourse to the translation. This she thought was as it ought -to be. - -JAMES CLARKE said it always vexed him to hear ignorant people speak of -Hercules as if he were a God, and of Apollo and Jupiter as if they might -at some time have been men. - -MARGARET said, Yes, the distinction between Gods and Demigods was that -the former were the creations of pure spontaneity, and the latter -actually existent personages, about whose heroic characters and lives all -congenial stories clustered. - -J. F. C. did not like the statues of Hercules; the brawny figure was not -to his taste. - -MARGARET thought it majestic. She said he belonged properly to Thessaly, -and was identified with its scenery. She told several little stories -about him. That of his sailing round the rock of Prometheus, in a golden -cup borrowed of Jupiter, was the least known. She told the story from -Ovid, the glowing account of his death, of the recognition by delighted -Jove. She said Wordsworth’s “Tour in Greece” gave her great materials for -thought. - -Then she turned to Bacchus. - -To show in what manner she supposed Bacchus to be the _answer_ or -complement to Apollo, she mentioned the statement of some late critic -upon the relation of Ceres and Persephone to each other. - -Persephone was the hidden energy, the vestal fire, vivifying the -universe. Ceres was the productive faculty, external, bounteous. They -were two phases of one thing. It was the same with Apollo and Bacchus. -Apollo was the vivifying power of the sun; its genial glow stirred the -earth, and its noblest product, the grape, responded. - -She spoke of the Bacchanalian festivals, of the spiritual character -attributed to them by Euripides, showing that originally they were -something more than gross orgies. - -MRS. CLARKE (ANN WILBY) said that they licensed the wildest drunkenness -in Athens. - -I said that was at a later time than Euripides undertook to picture. Were -they identical with the Orphic? Did Orpheus really bring them from Egypt? - -MARGARET would accept that for a _beginning_. - -E. P. P. thought that next winter we might have a talk about Roman -Mythology. - -MARGARET liked the idea, and JAMES CLARKE seemed to accept it for the -whole party. He said that he had never felt any interest in the Greek -stories, until Margaret had made them the subject of conversation. - -E. P. P. said she had felt excessively ashamed all through that she knew -so little. - -MARGARET said no one need to feel so. It was a subject that might exhaust -any preparation. Still, she wished we _would_ study! She had herself -enjoyed great advantages. Nobody’s explanations had ever perplexed her -brain. She had been placed in a garden, with a great pile of books before -her. She began to read Latin before she read English. For a time these -deities were real to her, and she prayed: “O God! if thou art Jupiter!” -etc. - -JAMES CLARKE said he remembered her once telling him that she prayed to -Bacchus for a bunch of grapes! - -MARGARET smiled, and said that when she was first old enough to think -about Christianity, she cried out for her dear old Greek gods. Its -spirituality seemed nakedness. She could not and would not receive it. It -was a long while before she saw its deeper meaning. - - CAROLINE W. HEALEY. - - May 7, 1841. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] Emerson’s presence at Conversations II. V. and VIII. is noted above, -because in his contribution to Margaret’s “Memoirs” he shows that his -attendance made absolutely no impression on him. He states that there -were but _five_ Conversations, and that he was present only at the second. - -[2] Dr. Dana, a celebrated chemist, received a salary from the Merrimac -Manufacturing Co. as consulting chemist. Through his experiments and -practical skill, a radical change was made in the methods of dyeing and -printing calicoes. This was in connection with the use of madder, and -the Company claimed his discovery and allowed him no extra recompense. -It will be perceived that Mr. Ripley got his supposed facts from the -newspapers. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Margaret and Her Friends, by -Margaret Fuller and Caroline Wells Healey Dall - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARGARET AND HER FRIENDS *** - -***** This file should be named 62756-0.txt or 62756-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/7/5/62756/ - -Produced by Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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