Page:Margaret Fuller by Howe, Julia Ward, Ed. (1883).djvu/143

128 acquainted with man on the impulsive and passionate side of his nature, so that his view of character was sometimes narrow, but always noble."

Margaret turns from the great divine to her Concord friend as one turns from shade to sunshine. « The two men are alike," she says, "in dignity of purpose, dis- interest, and purity.” But of the two she recognizes Emerson as the profound thinker and man of ideas, dealing "with causes rather than with effects." His influence appears to her deep, not wide, host constantly extending its circles. He is to her "a harbinger of the better day.”

Irving, Cooper, Miss Sedgwick, and Mrs. Child are briefly mentioned, but with characteristic appreciation. “The style of story current in the magazines” is pronounced by her "flimsy beyond any texture that was ever spun or dreamed of by the mind of man."

Our friend now devotes herself to the poets of America, at whose head she places “Mr. Bryant, alone.” Genuineness appears tome his chief merit, in her eyes, for she does not find his genius either fertile or comprehensive. “But his poetry is purely the language of his inmost nature, and the simple, lovely garb in which his thoughts are arrayed, a direct gift from the Muse."

Halleck, Willis, and Dana receive each their meed of praise at her hands. Passing over what is said, and well said, of them, we come to a criticism on Longfellow, which is much at variance with his popular reputation, and which, though acute and well hit, will hardly commend itself to-day to the judgment either of the learned or unlearned. For, even if Longfellow's inspiration be allowed to be a reflected rather than an original one, the mirror of his imagination is so pure