close drew from Mr. Lowell a "Commemoration Ode" worthy to
stand beside Mr. Emerson's "Boston Hymn."

In presenting a study of Margaret's thoughts and life, it seemed to us
impossible to omit some consideration of her pronounced opinions
concerning the most widely known of her American compeers in literature.
Having brought these before the reader, we find it difficult to say the
right word concerning them.

In accepting or rejecting a criticism, we should consider, first, its
intention; secondly, its method; and, in the third place, its standard.
If the first be honorable, the second legitimate, and the third
substantial, we shall adopt the conclusion arrived at as a just result
of analytic art.

In the judgments just quoted, we must believe the intention to have been
a sincere one. But neither the method nor the standard satisfies us. The
one is arbitrary, the other unreal. Our friend's appreciation of her
contemporaries was influenced, at the time of her writing, by
idiosyncrasies of her own which could not give the law to the general
public. These were shown in her great dislike of the smooth and
stereotyped in manner, and her impatience of the common level of thought
and sentiment. The unusual had for her a great attraction. It promised
originality, which to her seemed a condition of truth itself. She has
said in this very paper: "No man can be absolutely true to himself,
eschewing cant, compromise, servile imitation, and complaisance, without
becoming original."

Here we seem to find a confusion between two conceptions of the word
"original." Originality in one acceptation is vital and universal. We
originate from the start, and do not _become original_. But the power to
develop forms of thought which shall deserve to be called original is a
rare gift, and one which even conscience cannot command at will.

The sentences here quoted and commented on show us that Margaret, almost
without her own knowledge, was sometimes a partisan of the intellectual
reaction of the day, which attacked, in the name of freedom, the fine,
insensible tyranny of form and precedent. In its place were temporarily
enthroned the spontaneous and passionate. Miracles were expected to
follow this change of base, oracles from children, availing philosophies
from people who were rebels against all philosophy. Margaret's
passionate hopefulness at times carried her within this sphere, where,
however, her fine perceptions and love of thorough