al interest Margaret felt for each of her many friends. There
was no illusion in the sense of her value which they, all and severally,
entertained.

Where, we may ask, shall we look to-day for a friendliness so wide and
so availing? We can only answer that such souls are not sent into the
world every day. Few of us can count upon inspiring even in those who
are nearest and dearest to us this untiring concern in our highest
welfare. But such a friend to so many it would be hard to find.

When we consider Margaret's love of literature, and her power of making
its treasures her own, we must think of this passion of hers for
availing intercourse with other minds as indeed a providential gift
which no doubt lavished in passing speech much that would have been
eloquent on paper, but which evidently had on society the immediate and
intensified effect which distinguishes the living word above the dead
letter.

CHAPTER IV.

ART STUDIES.--REMOVAL TO GROTON.--MEETING WITH HARRIET MARTINEAU.--DEATH
OF MR. FULLER.--DEVOTION TO HER FAMILY.

Margaret's enthusiasm for art was in some measure the result of her
study of Goethe. Yet she had in herself a love of the beautiful, and a
sense of its office in life, which would naturally have led her far in
the direction in which this great master gave her so strong an
impulsion. In her multifarious reading she gave much time to the
literature of art, and in those days had read everything that related to
Michael Angelo and Raphael, Quatremere de Quincy, Condivi, Vasari,
Benvenuto Cellini, and others. The masters themselves she studied in the
casts of the Boston Athenaeum, in the Brimmer Collection of Engravings,
and in the contents of certain portfolios which a much-esteemed friend
placed at her service, and which contained all the designs of Michael
and Raphael.

The delight which Margaret felt in these studies demanded the sympathy
of her elect associates, and Mr. Emerson remembers certain months as
having been "colored with the genius of these Italians." In 1839 Mr.
Allston's numerous works were collected for a public exhibition which
drew to Boston lovers of art from many distant places. In the same year
some sculptures of Greenough and Crawford were added to the attractions
of the Boston Athenaeum.

In Margaret's appreciation of these works, if we may believe Mr.
Emerson, a certain fanciful interpretation of her own sometimes took the
place of a just estimate of artistic v