Flowers,
trees, birds, domestic animals, and helpless human beings have received
more sympathetic treatment as a result. In what previous time have we heard
an American poet ask, as Emerson did in his poem _Forbearance_ (1842):--
"Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk?"
[Illustration: MARGARET FULLER'S COTTAGE, BROOK FARM]
THE DIAL.--Transcendentalism had for its organ a magazine called _The
Dial_, which was published quarterly for four years, from 1840 to 1844.
Margaret Fuller, its first editor, was a woman of wide reading and varied
culture, and she had all the enthusiasm of the Elizabethans. Carlyle said
of her, "Such a predetermination to eat this big Universe as her oyster or
her egg, and to be absolute empress of all height and glory in it that her
heart could conceive, I have not before seen in any human soul." She was
determined to do her part in ushering in a new social and spiritual world,
and it seemed to her that _The Dial_ would be a mighty lever in
accomplishing this result. She struggled for two years to make the magazine
a success. Then ill health and poverty compelled her to turn the editorship
over to Emerson, who continued the struggle for two years longer.
Pages:
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212