Page:Margaret Fuller by Howe, Julia Ward, Ed. (1883).djvu/37

22 attention to the happy days at Cambridge, which Margaret may not have recognised as such, but which must have seemed bright to her 'when contrasted with the years of labour and anxiety which followed them.

Mr. Clarke tells us that Margaret and he began the study of the German language in 1832, moved thereunto by Thomas Carlyle’s brilliant exposition of the merits of leading German authors. In three months' time Margaret had acquired easy command of the language, and within the year had read the most important works of Goethe and Schiller, with the writings also of Tieck, Korner, Richter, and Novalis. Extracts from her letters at this time show that this extensive reading, was neither hasty nor superficial.

She finds herself happier in the companionship of Schiller than in that of Goethe, of whom she says, "That perfect wisdom and merciless reason seems cold after those seducing pictures of forms "more beautiful than truth." The "Elective Affinities" suggests to her various critical questions, but does not carry her away with the sweep of its interest. From the immense superiority of Goethe” she finds it a relief to turn to the simplicity of Novalis, “wondrous youth, who has written only one volume," and whose “one-sidedness, imperfection, and glow, seem refreshingly human” to her. Körner becomes a fixed star in the heaven of her thought Lessing interests her less. She credits him with the production of "well conceived and sustained characters and interesting situations,” but not with any profound knowledge of human nature. "I think him easily followed; strong, but not deep."

This was with Margaret, as Dr. Hedge has well