Page:Margaret Fuller Ossoli (Higginson).djvu/317



woman of genius, Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman of Providence, — best known to the world as having been the betrothed of Edgar Poe, — wrote once, in the “Providence Journal,” a description of a scene where the brilliant and audacious John Neal gave a parlor lecture on Phrenology, then at its high-tide of prominence; and illustrated it by Margaret Fuller’s head. The occasion is thus described: —

“Among the topics of the evening, phrenology was introduced, and Mr. Neal expressed a wish to give what might be termed a topical illustration of his favorite theory. Miss Fuller slowly uncoiled the heavy folds of her light brown hair and submitted her haughty head to his sentient fingers. The masterly analysis which he made of her character, its complexities and contradictions, its heights and its depths, its nobilities and its frailties, was strangely lucid and impressive, and helped one who knew her well to a more tender and sympathetic appreciation of her character and career, a character which only George Eliot could have fully appreciated and portrayed.”