s. Abigail Folsom, was but too ready with her
interminable scroll." In the July number of the year 1842 many pages are
devoted to a rehearsal of "the entertainments of the past winter," which
treats of Fanny Elssler's dancing, Braham's singing, oratorios, symphony
concerts, and various lectures. Among these last, those of Mr. Lyell
(afterwards Sir Charles) are curtly dismissed as "a neat article," while
those of Henry Giles are recognized as showing popular talent.

Among Margaret's own contributions to the "Dial," the article on Goethe
and that entitled "The Great Lawsuit" are perhaps the most noteworthy.
We shall find the second of these expanded into the well-known "Woman in
the Nineteenth Century," of which mention will be made hereafter. The
one first named seems to demand some notice here, the fine
discrimination of its criticism showing how well qualified the writer
was to teach the women of her day the true appreciation of genius, and
to warn them from the idolatry which worships the faults as well as the
merits of great minds.

From a lover of Goethe, such sentences as the following were scarcely to
have been expected:--

"Pardon him, World, that he was too worldly. Do not wonder, Heart, that
he was so heartless. Believe, Soul, that one so true, as far as he
went, must yet be initiated into the deeper mysteries of soul.

"Naturally of a deep mind and shallow heart, he felt the sway of the
affections enough to appreciate their working in other men, but never
enough to receive their inmost regenerating influence."

Margaret finds a decline of sentiment and poetic power in Goethe, dating
from his relinquishment of Lili.

"After this period we find in him rather a wide and deep wisdom than the
inspirations of genius. His faith that all must issue well wants the
sweetness of piety; and the God he manifests to us is one of law or
necessity rather than of intelligent love.

"This mastery that Goethe prizes seems to consist rather in the skilful
use of means than in the clear manifestation of ends. Yet never let him
be confounded with those who sell all their birthright. He became blind
to the more generous virtues, the nobler impulses, but ever in
self-respect was busy to develop his nature. He was kind, industrious,
wise, gentlemanly, if not manly."

Margaret, with bold and steady hand, draws a parallel between Dante's
"Paradiso" and the second part of Goethe's "Faust." She prefers "the
grandly humble relian