Page:Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (IA memoirsofmargare02fullrich).pdf/81

Rh missing no chance to drop good seed in every furrow upturned by the ploughshare or softened by the rain. In the secluded yet intensely animated circle of these co-workers I frequently met her during several succeeding years, and rejoice to bear testimony to the justice, magnanimity, wisdom, patience, and many-sided goodwill, that governed her every thought and deed. The feelings with which she watched the progress of this experiment are thus exhibited in her journals: —

‘My hopes might lead to Association, too, — an association, if not of efforts, yet of destinies. In such an one I live with several already, feeling that each one, by acting out his own, casts light upon a mutual destiny, and illustrates the thought of a master mind. It is a constellation, not a phalanx, to which I would belong.’

‘Why bind oneself to a central or any doctrine? How much nobler stands a man entirely unpledged, unbound! Association may be the great experiment of the age, still it is only an experiment. It is not worth while to lay such stress on it; let us try it, induce others to try it, — that is enough.’

‘It is amusing to see how the solitary characters tend to outwardness, — to association, — while the social and sympathetic ones emphasize the value of solitude, — of concentration, — so that we hear from each the word which, from his structure, we least expect.’

‘On Friday I came to Brook Farm. The first day or two here is desolate. You seem to belong to nobody