Page:Margaret Fuller by Howe, Julia Ward, Ed. (1883).djvu/235

220 The defects of her style are easily seen. They are in some degree the result of her assiduous study of foreign languages, in which the pure and severe idioms of the English tongue were sometimes lost sight of. Among them may be mentioned a want of measure in expression, and also something akin to the fault which is called on the stage "anti-climax," by which some saying of weight and significance loses its point by being followed by another of equal emphasis. With all this, the high quality of her mind has left its stamp upon all that she gave to the reading public. Much of this first appeared in the form of contributions to the Tribune, the Dial, and other journals and magazines. Some of these papers are brief and even fragmentary; but the shortest of them show careful study and conscientious judgment. All of them are valuable for the admirable view which they present of the time in which Margaret wrote, of its difficulties and limitations, and of the hopes and convictions which^ cherished then in the hearts of the few, were destined to make themselves a law to the conscience of the whole community.

The most important of the more elaborate essays is undoubtedly that entitled Woman in the Nineteenth Century, of which some account has already been given in the preceding pages. Of the four volumes published in 1875, one bears this title. A second, entitled Art, Literature, and the Drama, contains many of the papers to which reference has been made in our brief account of Margaret and her contemporaries. From a third volume, entitled Abroad and at Home, we have quoted some of her most interesting statements concerning the Liberal movement in Europe, of which she was so ardent a friend