t had been named after Cambridge's most
intellectual woman, by Ripley, who had a whimsical fashion of thus
honouring his friends. According to Hawthorne, the name in this case was
not inapt, for the cow was so recalcitrant and anti-social that it was
finally sent to Coventry by the more docile kine, always to be counted
on for moderate conservatism.

This cow's would-be-tamer, not wishing to be unjust, refers to this
heifer as having "a very intelligent face" and "a reflective cast of
character." He certainly paid Margaret Fuller herself no such tribute,
but thus early in his Brook Farm experience let appear his thinly veiled
contempt for the high priestess of transcendentalism. Even earlier his
antagonism toward this eminent woman was strong, if it was not frank,
for he wrote: "I was invited to dine at Mr. Bancroft's yesterday with
Miss Margaret Fuller, but Providence had given me some business to do
for which I was very thankful."

The unlovely side of Margaret Fuller must have made a very deep
impression upon Hawthorne. Gentle as the great romancer undoubtedly was
by birth and training, he has certainly been very harsh in writing, both
in his note-book and in his story of Brook Farm, of the woman we
recognise in Zenobia. One of the most interesting literary wars ever
carried on in this vicinity, indeed, was that which was waged here some
fifteen years ago concerning Julian Hawthorne's revelations of his
father's private opinion of the Marchesa d'Ossoli. The remarks in
question occurred in the great Hawthorne's "Roman Journal," and were
certainly sufficiently scathing to call for such warm defence as
Margaret's surviving friends hastened to offer. Hawthorne said among
other things:

"Margaret Fuller had a strong and coarse nature which she had done her
utmost to refine, with infinite pains; but, of course, it could be only
superficially changed.... Margaret has not left in the hearts and minds
of those who knew her any deep witness of her integrity and purity. She
was a great humbug--of course, with much talent and moral reality, or
else she could never have been so great a humbug.... Toward the last
there appears to have been a total collapse in poor Margaret, morally
and intellectually; and tragic as her catastrophe was, Providence was,
after all, kind in putting her and her clownish husband and their child
on board that fated ship.... On the whole, I do not know but I like her
the better, though, because she pro