an walk in the dust, and yet shake it from
their feet when they come upon the green. These are no winged
Mercuries, no silver-sandalled Madonnas. Listen to "the
world's" truth and soberness, and we will show you that your
heart would be as well placed in a hospital, as in these
air-born palaces.

'And thou, priest, seek thy God among the people, and not in
the shrine. The light need not penetrate thine own soul.
Thou canst catch the true inspiration from the eyes of thy
auditors. Not the Soul of the World, not the ever-flowing
voice of nature, but the articulate accents of practical
utility, should find thy ear ever ready. Keep always among
men, and consider what they like; for in the silence of thine
own breast will be heard the voices that make men "mad." Why
shouldst thou judge of the consciousness of others by thine
own? May not thine own soul have been made morbid, by retiring
too much within? If Jesus of Nazareth had not fasted and
prayed so much alone, the devil could never have tempted
him; if he had observed the public mind more patiently and
carefully, he would have waited till the time was ripe, and
the minds of men prepared for what he had to say. He would
thus have escaped the ignominious death, which so prematurely
cut short his "usefulness." Jewry would thus, gently, soberly,
and without disturbance, have been led to a better course.

'"Children of this generation!"--ye Festuses and Agrippas!--ye
are wiser, we grant, than "the children of light;" yet we
advise you to commend to a higher tribunal those whom much
learning, or much love, has made "mad." For if they stay here,
almost will they persuade even you!'

Amidst these meetings of the Transcendentalists it was, that, after
years of separation, I again found Margaret. Of this body she was
member by grace of nature. Her romantic freshness of heart, her
craving for the truth, her self-trust, had prepared her from childhood
to be a pioneer in prairie-land; and her discipline in German schools
had given definite form and tendency to her idealism. Her critical
yet aspiring intellect filled her with longing for germs of positive
affirmation in place of the chaff of thrice-sifted negation; while her
aesthetic instinct responded in accord to the praise of Beauty as the
beloved heir of Good and Truth, whose right it is to reign. On the
other hand