s not too late. The whole neighborhood
would rush to save this woman if she were buried alive by the caving in
of a pit, and labor with zeal until she were dug out. Now if there were
one who had as much patience as zeal, and who, having carefully observed
how a little child learns language, would attempt to lead her gently
through the same course, he might possibly awaken her to a consciousness
of her immortal nature. The chance is small indeed; but with a smaller
chance they would have dug desperately for her in the pit; and is the
life of the soul of less import than that of the body?

"It is to be feared that there are many others whose cases are not known
out of their own families, who are regarded as beyond the reach of help,
and who are therefore left in their awful desolation.

"This ought not to be, either for the good of the sufferers, or of those
about them. It is hardly possible to conceive a case in which some
improvement could not be effected by patient perseverance; and the
effort ought to be made in every one of them.

"The sight of any being, in human shape, left to brutish ignorance, is
always demoralizing to the beholders. There floats not upon the stream
of life any wreck of humanity so utterly shattered and crippled that its
signals of distress should not challenge attention and command
assistance."]

Dear Sir, I went south
As far as Portsmouth,
And found a most charming old woman,
Delightfully void
Of all that's enjoyed
By the animal vaguely called human.

She has but one jaw,
Has teeth like a saw,
Her ears and her eyes I delight in:
The one could not hear
Tho' a cannon were near,
The others are holes with no sight in.

Her cinciput lies
Just over her eyes,
Not far from the bone parietal;
The crown of her head,
Be it vulgarly said,
Is shaped like the back of a beetle.

Destructiveness great
Combines with conceit
In the form of this wonderful noddle,
But benev'lence, you know,
And a large _philopro_
Give a great inclination to coddle.

And so on.

CHAPTER VIII

FIRST YEARS IN BOSTON

In the autumn of 1844 we returned from our wedding journey, and took up
our abode in the near neighborhood of the city of Boston, of which at
intervals I had already enjoyed some glimpses. These had shown me
Margaret Fuller, holding high communion with her friends in her
well-r