which
Miss Martineau had written about Mr. Alcott. This she could not pass
over without comment: "A true and noble man; a philanthropist, whom a
true and noble woman, also a philanthropist, should have delighted to
honor; a philosopher, worthy the palmy times of ancient Greece; a man
whom the worldlings of Boston hold in as much horror as the worldlings
of ancient Athens did Socrates. They smile to hear their verdict
confirmed from the other side of the Atlantic by their censor, Harriet
Martineau."

Margaret expresses in this letter the fear lest the frankness of her
strictures should deprive her of the regard of her friend, but says, "If
your heart turns from me, I shall still love you, still think you
noble."

* * * * *

In 1840 Margaret was solicited to become the editor of the "Dial," and
undertook, for two years, the management of the magazine, which was at
this time considered as the organ of the Transcendentalists. The "Dial"
was a quarterly publication, somewhat nebulous in its character, but
valuable as the expression of fresh thought, stimulating to culture of a
new order. Like the transcendental movement itself, it had in it the
germs of influences which in the course of the last forty years have
come to be widely felt and greatly prized. In the newness of its birth
and origin, it needed nursing fathers and nursing mothers, but was fed
mostly, so far as concerns the general public, with neglect and
ridicule.

Margaret, besides laboring with great diligence in her editorship,
contributed to its pages many papers on her favorite points of study,
such as Goethe, Beethoven, Romantic poetry, John Stirling, etc. Of the
"Dial," Mr. Emerson says: "Good or bad, it cost a good deal of precious
labor from those who served it, and from Margaret most of all." As there
were no funds behind the enterprise, contributors were not paid for
their work, and Margaret's modest salary of two hundred dollars per
annum was discontinued after the first year.

The magazine lived four years. In England and Scotland it achieved a
_succes d'estime_, and a republication of it in these days is about to
make tardy amends for the general indifference which allowed its career
to terminate so briefly.

Copies of the original work, now a literary curiosity, can here and
there be borrowed from individuals who have grown old in the service of
human progress. A look into the carefully preserved volumes shows