aloft a waving crest, but spreading no
sheltering and embracing branches.

William Henry Channing, whose reminiscences of Margaret stand last in
order in the memoirs already published, was more nearly allied to her in
character than either of his coadjutors. If Mr. Emerson's bane was a
want of fusion, the ruling characteristic of Mr. Channing was a heart
that melted almost too easily at the touch of human sympathy, and whose
heat and glow of feeling may sometimes have overswept the calmer power
of judgment.

He had heard of Margaret in her school-girl days as a prodigy of talent
and attainment. During the period of his own studies in Cambridge he
first made her acquaintance. He was struck, but not attracted, by her
"saucy sprightliness." Her intensity of temperament, unmeasured satire,
and commanding air were indeed somewhat repellent to him, and almost led
him to conjecture that she had chosen for her part in life the _role_ of
a Yankee Corinne. Her friendships, too, seemed to him extravagant. He
dreaded the encounter of a personality so imperious and uncompromising
in its demands, and was content to observe her at a safe and respectful
distance. Soon, however, through the "shining fog" of brilliant wit and
sentiment the real nobility of her nature made itself seen and felt. He
found her sagacious in her judgments. Her conversation showed breadth
of culture and depth of thought. Above all, he was made to feel her
great sincerity of purpose. "This it was," says he, "that made her
criticism so trenchant, her contempt of pretence so quick and stern."
The loftiness of her ideal explained the severity of her judgments, and
the heroic mould and impulse of her character had much to do with her
stately deportment. Thus the salient points which, at a distance, had
seemed to him defects, were found, on a nearer view, to be the
indications of qualities most rare and admirable.

James Freeman Clarke, an intimate of both parties, made them better
known to each other by his cordial interpretation of each to each. But
it was in the year 1839, in the days of Margaret's residence at Jamaica
Plain, that the friendship between these two eminent persons, "long
before rooted, grew up, and leafed, and blossomed." Mr. Channing traces
the beginning of this nearer relation to a certain day on which he
sought Margaret amid these new surroundings. It was a bright summer day.
The windows of Margaret's parlor commanded a pleasant view of meadow