Page:Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (IA memoirsofmargare01fullrich).pdf/348

346 “C—— replied, — ‘It is to laugh, or cry, according to out organization.’

Good,’ said Margaret, ‘but not grave enough. Come, what is life? I know what I think; I want you to find out what you think.’

“Miss P. replied, — ‘Life is division from one’s principle of life in order to a conscious reörganization. We are cut up by time and circumstance, in order to feel our reproduction of the eternal law.’

“Mrs. E., — ‘We live by the will of God, and the object of life is to submit,’ and went on into Calvinism.

“Then came up all the antagonisms of Fate and Freedom.

“Mrs. H. said, — ‘God created us in order to have a perfect sympathy from us as free beings.’

“Mrs. A. B. said she thought the object of life was to attain absolute freedom. At this Margaret immediately and visibly kindled.

“C. S. said, — ‘God creates from the fulness of life, and cannot but create; he created us to overflow, without being exhausted, because what he created, necessitated new creation. It is not to make us happy, but creation is his happiness and ours.’

Margaret was then pressed to say what she considered life to be.

Her answer was so full, clear, and concise, at once, that it cannot but be marred by being drawn through the scattering medium of my memory. But here are some fragments of her satisfying statement.

“She began with God as Spirit, Life, so full as to create and love eternally, yet capable of pause. Love and creativeness are dynamic forces, out of which we, individually, as creatures, go forth bearing his image, that