Margaret Fuller and Goethe : the development of a remarkable personality, her religion and philosophy, and her relation to Emerson, J. F. Clarke, and transcendentalism

Preface

Just a century ago, In 1810, was bom one of America's most remarkable women, if not the most remarkable one, Margaret Fuller. This book therefore comes as a centenary tribute to her memory.

Several writers and critics, among them Edward Everett Hale and T. W. Higginson, have tried to account for the very strange fact that Margaret Fuller is not better known generally to the students and readers of American literature. That she deserves a much more honorable place in the history of the development of our thought and literature than the rather humble one which has thus far been assigned to her, has been felt by all who have studied her interesting career and become acquainted with her extraordinary intellect and activities. In fact, it is difficult to understand the whole creative period of our literature without taking into account her significant role in the whole movement, andthepowerful influence she exerted upon our greatest American vi PREFACE

thinkers and most noted literary men of that important period. It is the hope of the short introductory chapter of the present work to bring to light, in a somewhat concise treatment, her true relation to some of these great men and to the period in which she lived and acted.

The chief aim of the present work, nevertheless, is to trace the inner development of the powerful personality of this interesting woman, and to search out the sources of her growth and the foundation for her religious convictions and her conceptions of life. What influence she exerted among her countrymen in disseminating the convictions to which she held and how she interpreted and defended their author, Goethe, also deserves attention. Some space is therefore given to this phase of the subject.

The author wishes to express his gratitude and indebtedness to Professor Julius Goebel, the head of the Department of German in the University of Illinois. It was upon his recommendation and with the help of his valuable suggestions that this work was undertaken and written. To Professor Stuart P. Sherman, of the Department of English in the University of Illinois, who read the present work in its original draft, and offered

PREFACE vii

many valuable criticisms, the writer desires to express his most hearty thanks. The writer also desires to thank Professor John A. Walz, Chairman of the Department of Germanic Language and Literature at Harvard University, for. his kindly interest in the author during the years he spent at Harvard, and for the suggestions offered In the prosecution of this work. The writer furthermore owes his thanks to Dr. Frederick W. C. Lieder, Instructor in German in Harvard University, for his friendly assistance in securing some of the books necessary for this study. Gratitude is also expressed for the assistance given the writer by Miss Edith D. Fuller, the niece of Margaret Fuller; and also for the courtesies of the authorities of the Boston Public Library, Messrs. Whitney and Wheeler, especially, who permitted the writer to read the entire collection of the Margaret Fiiller manuscripts deposited In the Boston PubUc Library, and to make copious extracts from them. The writer is also Indebted to the various publishers vvho own the copyrights to works from which he has quoted. The references to these works are always given In the footnotes.

F. A. B.

Contents

PAGE AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER I

CHAPTER I CHAPTER n

STUDY OF GERMAN. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARGARET FULLER'S

INNER LIFE 4^

CHAPTER HI

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 7'

CHAPTER IV

DEFENSE OF GOETHE 14^

CHAPTER V

INTERPRETATION, CRITICISM AND TRANSLATION OF GOETHE 174

CONCLUSION 242

MARGARET FULLER^S RELIGIOUS CREED. APPENDIX 247

BIBLIOGRAPHY 259

INDEX 263

NOTE

The titles of the following works referred to in the footnotes are abbreviated thus :

Memoirs: Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Henry Channfng, and James Freeman Clarke.

Margaret Fuller MSS.: Manuscript letters and papers of Margaret Fuller In the Boston Public Library.

Expressions In parentheses are from the author quoted ; those in brackets are made by the writer.

n| One of the most Interesting and Influential characters in the history of Amerfcan literature Is Margaret Fuller. She was a leader in the great movement which during the fourth and fifth decades of the last century freed American Literature from a mere slavish Imitation of European — chiefly English — models, and established it on a firm basis In our own country. The company of young writers who Inaugurated this movement insisted that our poets and writers should take American themes and give them an original treatment, local coloring, and an American setting. Moreover, like Goethe and Schiller, Margaret Fuller as leader of this same group of thinkers, Insisted with them that poetry should have I'ts foundations deep In personal experience, In life Itself — that It should flow from the human heart, and not be a mere product of the Intellect.^ Finally, she did, in all

^ Art, Literature and the Drama, p. 306.

I probability, more than any other writer or critic to bring the Americans to a fair appreciation and estimation of the rich literature of Germany, especially that of Goethe, who, as Emerson has well said, is "the pivotal mind in modern literature, for all before him are ancients, and all who have read him are moderns."^

The history of her influence coincides with the history of her personal development, which it will be the purpose of the following chapters to develop. First to be considered is her early Puritan education, with its one-sidedness, and its moral . and religious rigorism, developing the intellect alone, and neglecting altogether the education of the heart, the truly human side of character. It will be shown how she rebelled against the Puritan church dogma, which seemed to have nothing in common with her inner life, and how she longed for a harmonious development of her whole being and nature, intellectual and emotional, through a full experience in life. We shall see how she found in Goethe, "the great apostle of individual culture,"^ as she calls him, the means for such a development as she wished; how her nature, her soul expanded and she grew to be the strong per-

' JVoman in the Nineteenth Century, p. 124.

sonality she was. It will be shown how she accepted and lived out, to a very large extent, Goethe's religious and philosophical doctrines of life; how she interpreted Goethe and his works and defended him against the severe criticism and prejudices of many of her countrymen; and finally, how she wielded a powerful influence in favor of a general study of German among the cultured of New England, and through them among the educated over the whole country.

MARGARET FULLER'S PLACE IN AMERICAN LITERA- TURE

Margaret Fuller's influence and strong personality were probably felt for the first time in connection with a club which had for one of its chief aims the liberation and deepening of American literature. This literary club had its beginning probably as early as 1833, and comprised finally in its membership the entire knot of original young thinkers then in New England. It contained on its list such names as Emerson, F. H. Hedge, George Ripley, Alcott, Theodore Parker, W. H. Channing, J. F. Clarke, Elizabeth P. Peabody, and later Thoreau/ The club was called by various names, none of which, on account of the diversity of the views of Its members, seemed exactly to fit. It was called *'The Transcendental Club," "The Symposium Club," and occasionally "The Hedge Club," because the dates of Its monthly meetings were arranged to suit Dr. Hedge's visits to Boston from his home In Bangor, Maine. ^^,

That Margaret Fuller was an active member of the club from the very beginning, and a recognized leader and guiding spirit. Is the testimony of all her biographers. She, too, was the leader In the famous Boston "Conversations," and later became editor of the Dial, the organ and mouthpiece of the whole "storm and stress" movement In American thought and literature. Mr. HIgglnson writes In his biography of her : "Apart from every word she ever wrote, Margaret Fuller will always be an Important figure In American history, for this plain reason: that she was the organizer and executive force of the first thoroughly American literary enterprise [The Dial~\/^ So Important Is this magazine that we must go to it to determine the real weight of this whole

^ For a more comprehensive description of this club see Higgin- 8on, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, pp. 130 flf.

literary and philosophical movement. It is the only authentic record. *'To know what Emerson individually was," continues Mr. Higginson, "we can go to his books; it is the same with Parker, Thoreau, Alcott. But what it was that united these diverse elements, what was their central spirit, what their collective strength or weakness, their maximum and minimum, their high and low water mark, this must be sought in the 'Dial'. That was the alembic within which they were all distilled, and the priestess who superintended this intellectual chemic process. . . . Margaret Fuler." ^ Professor Trent in his American Literature says of the Dial: ''Most important of all it gave a new impetus and in some ways a new direction to literary energy, especially in New England." =^ *

Concerning the quality of Margaret Fuller's writing and her power as a critic, Mr. Higginson says: "First she excelled in 'lyric glimpses', or

^ Trent, American Literature, p. 318.

* In what a noble and true spirit of patriotism she accomplished this great service for the literature of our country, and with what a sacrifice to herself, may be seen when we consider that she was promised for editing the Dial, only two hundred dollars a year, which were probably never paid her; since the other expenses of the magazine were about equal to the income from subscriptions. Still she writes in a letter: "It is for dear New England that I want this review." — Memoirs, II. 26.

the power of putting a high thought Into a sentence. . . . She seems to me to have been, In the second place, the best literary critic whom America has yet seen".^ A. Bronson Alcott writes of her In 1839: "She has a deeper insight into character than any of her contemporaries, and will enrich our literature." ^

Horace Greeley's estimation of Margaret Fuller was that she was "one whom impartial judgment must pronounce the most capable and noteworthy American woman the world has yet known; " and of her works: "I believe the writings of no other woman were ever so uniformly worthy of study and preservation." ^

If Margaret Fuller were considered only from the standpoint of the great influence she exerted upon the lives of our greatest American authors and thinkers, that alone ought to insure her a high place in the history of American thought and letters.

James Freeman Clarke, the great Unitarian preacher and writer, says of her: "The difficulty which we all feel in describing our past intercourse and friendship with Margaret Fuller, is, that the

^ Higginson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, pp. 288, 290.

* Introduction to Papers on Literature and Art, pp. i f.

intercourse was so intimate, and the friendship so personal, that It Is like making a confession to the public of our most Interior selves. For this noble person, by her keen Insight and her generous interest, entered Into the depth of every soul with which she stood In any real relation. To print one of her letters. Is like giving an extract from our own private journal." ^ The same author bears witness to Margaret Fuller's great power In bringing out that which was best and highest In every person who came under her strong influence: "I am disposed to think, much as she excelled In general conversation, that her greatest mental efforts were made in Intercourse with Individuals. All her friends will unite in the testimony, that whatever they may have known of wit and eloquence in others, they have never seen one who, like her, by the conversation of an hour or two, could not merely entertain and Inform, but make an epoch In one*s life. We all dated back to this or that conversation with Margaret, In which we took a complete survey of great subjects, came to some clear view of a difficult question, saw our way open before us to a higher plane of life, and were led to some definite resolution or purpose which has had a bearing on all our subsequent career/' ^ In a letter to T. W. Higglnson, thirty years later, Mr. Clarke again writes (May 15, 1883) : "Margaret had so many aspects to her soul that she might furnish material for a hundred biographers, and all could not be said even then." "

W. H. Channing, another one of her noted biographers, bears testimony to this same ability of Margaret Fuller to enter Into the most Intimate and beautiful relationship with the Intellectual and spiritual lives of those with whom she was associated. "I have no hope," he says, "of conveying to readers my sense of the beauty of our relation, as It lies In the past with brightness falling on It from Margaret's risen spirit. It would be like printing a chapter of auto-biography, to describe what Is so grateful In memory. Its Influence upon one's self." ^

The fact that a man like Emerson became one of her most enthusiastic admirers and biographers Is, in Itself, an unassailable proof of her high position and Importance. No one speaks of her powerful Influence In more unmistakable language than he as he describes her relation to him. No one

'Margaret Fuller MSS. Boston Public Library.

bears more positive proof of her high place among the thinkers and literary leaders of his time. In his masterly analysis of her mind and character, which Horace Greeley said, was "entitled to the praise of being the frankest, fairest, most effective biography of our day," ^ Emerson sounds the deepest recesses of the heart of this notable woman and seeks to discover the sources of the influence she wielded and the power that flowed from her soul.* Of her personal influence on the great minds about her, Emerson says : "She wore this circle of friends, when I first knew her, as a necklace of diamonds about her neck. They were so much to each other, that Margaret seemed to represent them all, and, to know her, was to acquire a place with them. The confidences given her were their best, and she held them to them. She was an active, inspiring companion and correspondent, and all the art, the thought, and the nobleness in New England, seemed, at that moment, related to her, and she to it."^

Concerning the many conversations that Mar-

^ Introduction to Papers on Literature and Art, p. i.

*It is rather strange that this biography, so much praised by Greeley, and as it seems to me, one of the best products of Emerson's mind in his great power of analyzing human character, has to my knowledge, never been republished among hi3 collected works.

lo AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

garet Fuller held with Emerson, as after dinner they read, or walked, or rode, during the weeks she spent every year at Emerson's home, he writes: "They Interested me In every manner; talent, memory, wit, stern Introspection, poetic play, religion, the finest personal feeling, the aspects of the future, each followed each In full activity, and left me, I remember, enriched and sometimes astonished by the gifts of my guest. Her topics were numerous, but the cardinal points of poetry, love, and religion, were never far off. . . . She was familiar with all the field of elegant criticism in literature."^ "The day was never long enough," Emerson writes again, "to exhaust her opulent memory; and I, who knew her Intimately for ten years, from July, 1836, to August, 1846, when she sailed for Europe, never saw her without surprise at her new powers.""

Finally, a passage from Emerson's journal shows the weight of the Influence she exercised upon this our greatest American thinker and philosopher: "I have no friend," says he, "whom I more wish to be Immortal than she. An Influence I cannot spare, but would always have at hand for recourse."^

^ Memoirs, I. 217 i. "Ibid., I. 214 f. ^ Margaret Fuller MSS.

AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ii

j In 1846 on her tour through England and 'Scotland Margaret Fuller visited Carlyle and his wife In their home. In spite of Carlyle's impression that Margaret Fuller was sometimes narrow, which was probably due In part to the fact that she opposed him In some of his views, he saw the rare qualities of her heart and mind/ He wrote ot her to Emerson: "Margaret Is an excellent soul: In real regard with both of us here [Carlyle and his wife]. Since she went, I have been reading some of her Papers In a new Book we have got: greatly superior to all I knew before; In fact the undeniable utterances (now first undeniable to me) of a true heroic mind; altogether unique, so far as I know among the Writing Women of this generation; rare enough too, God knows, among the writing Men. She Is very narrow, sometimes; but she Is truly high: honor to Margaret, and more and more good-speed to her."^

This testimony from so many diverse sources establishes once for all, Margaret Fuller's powerful Influence upon some of our greatest thinkers and our most famous literary men ; It fixes the high

* See At Home and Abroad, pp. 183 fF,

^ The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Boston, 1888, Vol. II., p. 155.

position she held In this, the most important movement — the creative period — In American literature.

How much credit Is due to the band of young reformers, among whom Margaret Fuller was a guiding spirit, may be seen when we consider the conditions in which they found our literature and what they did to elevate it. Our literature during the third and fourth decades of the last century was still in the first stages of its making. It Is true that Charles Brockden Brown, Irving, and Cooper had written a few novels and sketches of real merit; yet, on the whole, our literature was characterized, as Margaret Fuller has well said, by a "half boastful, half timid, boyish crudity." ^ It lacked real virile power and the positive national stamp. What made conditions still worse was that the few writers who possessed some talent sought their inspiration abroad and wrote in the spirit of imitation. Margaret Fuller writing In the Dial of this false tendency said: *'Some thinkers may object to this essay, that we are about to write of that which has, as yet, no existence. For It does not follow because many books are written by persons born in America that there exists an Amer-

* Memoirs, II. 7. Art, Literature, and the Drama, p. 298.

ican Literature. Books which imitate or represent the thoughts and life of Europe do not constitute an American literature."^

Even Longfellow was among those who were of the candid opinion that our literature was to be of a conglomerate or composite nature, merely uniting within itself all the foreign elements represented in this country; nothing more. As late as 1847 he writes in his journal: "Much is said now-a-days of a national literature. Does it mean anything? Such a literature is the expression of national character. We have, or shall have, a composite one, embracing French, Spanish, Irish, English, Scotch, and German peculiarities. Whoever has within himself most of these is our truly national writer."^ Again, somewhat earlier, (1844) he writes in a letter: "Vast forests, lakes, and prairies cannot make great poets. They are but the scenery of the play, and have much less to do with the poetic character than has been imagined."^ It did not occur to Longfellow until much later — until he, himself, had turned his poetic talent definitely to native American themes

^ Art, Literature and the Drama, p. 298.

'Life of Henry JVadsivorth Longfelloio. Boston and New York, 1893. Vol. II. 73 f. 'Ibid, II. 19 f.

— that among new scenes, and fresh native impulses, and with a new national feeling, greater personal freedom, and broader and more liberal political views, we Americans could develop something original, as we have done, a literature distinctly characteristic of our country, differing in some respects from any and all other literatures, and corresponding to the American type of character. It is of Longfellow, as he was at this period, and of the poets who believed as he did, and wrote accordingly — '^Colonists," as Margaret Fuller calls them — that she writes :

"What shall we say of the poets? The list is scanty; amazingly so, for there is nothing in the causes that could affect lyrical and narrative poetry ... Of the myriad leaves garnished with smooth stereotyped rhymes that issue yearly from our press, you will not find, one time in a million, a little piece written from any such impulse [of the heart], or with the least sincerity or sweetness of tone. They are written for the press, in the spirit of imitation or vanity, the paltriest offspring of the human brain, for the heart disclaims, as the ear is shut against them." ^

* Margaret Fuller in article on American Literature in the Dial. Literature and Art, Part II. 130. Art, Literature, and the Drama, p. 306.

Margaret Fuller here puts her finger upon the two cardinal faults of our literature of the time, especially the poetry. She lays bare the seat of the disease that kept It from growing and flowering. Our literature lacked, first of all, originality and secondly, depth. It was not an expression of the Innermost feelings of the heart, as it should be, feelings that arise out of personal experiences in life.

A distinctive and most creditable feature of the criticism of Margaret Fuller and her companions is its positive, and constructive character. While these reformers could not and would not bear anything pedantic, and attacked with all their might what they thought shallow, narrow, or false in life and literature, they enthusiastically offered In its stead something better and more substantial. With what enthusiasm and high hope they carried on this reform may be seen from the following passage by Emerson In the Dial: "He who doubts whether this age or this country can yield any contribution to the literature of the world only betrays his own blindness of the necessity of the human soul." ^ To enable an American literature to grow up in our country, writes Margaret Ful-

^ Higglnson, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, p. 137.

i6 AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

ler: "an original Idea must animate this nation and fresh currents of life must call Into life fresh thoughts along Its shores." Imitation will not suffice. We, "a mixed race . . . with ample field and verge enough to range in and leave every Impulse free, and abundant opportunity to develop a genius, wide and full as our rivers, flowery, luxuriant and impassioned as our vast prairies," are ourselves able to develop a creditable and glorious literature of our own, for "Men's hearts beat, hope, and suffer always, and they must crave such means to vent them." ^ Such were the thoughts and literary Ideals of this new movement In which Margaret Fuller played such an important part. Ideals as grand as those which Goethe and his associates set up for German literature during the "Storm and Stress" period in Germany. Such a literature. Inspired by native impulses and environments, and grown upon our own American soil, a literature which expresses feelings that spring from personal experiences In life, and that has Its foundations deep In the heart, is not only national, but universal.

What the effect of these new doctrines was, and how well the originators carried out their high

* Article on American Literature in the Dial. Art, Literature, and the Drama, pp. 298 f. 306.

Ideals, and In turn handed them down to their literary successors, Is well known. "After fifty years of national life," says Mr. HIgglnson, "the skylark and nightingale were at last dethroned from our literature, and In the very first volume of the 'Dial' the blue-bird and wood-thrush took their place. Since then, they have held their own; . . . Americans still go to England to hear the skylark, but Englishmen also come to America to hear the bobolink."^

A few words ought to be said concerning the writers who criticised Margaret Fuller unjustly. Some of these criticisms are due to a misunderstanding of her true nature and the purpose she had In view, and are honest. This misunderstanding was partly because of her straight-forward and often too plain-spoken manner of address, and because of the unfavorable Impression she so often made In public upon those not well acquainted with her. There are, however, several criticisms of her written out of malice and spite, assailing her at every point, not sparing even her character. Editors and authors In her time often sought to revenge themselves, by personal abuse, for some literary slight, or perhaps, for an unfavi8 AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

orable criticism of some of their works. The tomahawk theory was still In practice and men did not hesitate to "get even." This probably accounts for Edgar Allan Poe's scathing, unjust remarks concerning her, and his frequently dishonest criticisms of others who happened to provoke his ire.^ Lowell Is guilty of the same thing, though mildly so. In his Fahle for Critics, In which he satirizes Margaret Fuller's individual characteristics In "Miranda." ^ Hawthorne, too, failed here and there, to do her justice, though he seems to have been on good terms with her generally.^ For us It Is enough to judge her by what she wrote and did, and by the verdict passed upon her by such men as Emerson, Greeley, J. F. Clarke, and W. H. Channing, men who knew her best, and who, we are sure, gave their honest, candid opinion of her.

^*See for examples of Poe's bitter criticism and literary satire, his works (Chicago, 1896), Vol. VI. 245; IX. 259.

' The Writings of James Russell Loivell. (Riverside Edition) III. 67 ff.

*See Hawthorne's American Note Books. Entry for August 22, 1842.

Chapter I

"What I mean by the Muse is that unimpeded clearness of the Intuitive powers, which a perfectly truthful adherence to every admonition of the higher instincts would bring to a finely organized human being. . . . Should these faculties have free play, I believe they will open new, deeper and purer sources of joyous inspiration than have yet refreshed the earth. Let us be wise and not impede the soul."^ A natural development of the highest intuitive powers of the soul, by means of a full experience of life, this was Margaret Fuller's broad doctrine of education;- yet she, herself, never had the advantage of such a bringing up.

^ Woman in the Nineteenth Century, p. ii6. 'See Memoirs, I. 132 ff.

Margaret Fuller* received her early education In her home. Her father, a lawyer and politician, "a man of business, even In literature,"^ as she characterizes him In a sketch of her youth In an autobiographical romance, was her teacher.

* Sarah Margaret Fuller, the eldest child of Timothy Fuller, was born at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, May 23, 1810. Her girlhood days, except two years during whi^ch she attended the girls' school of the Misses Prescott at Groton, Massachusetts, were spent in and about Cambridge. At Cambridge and Boston she met and made friends with many noted men and women who remained her enthusiastic admirers through life. In 1833 the Fuller family removed to Groton. Here, besides her studies, Miss Fuller had many family cares and household duties to look after. Her father dying in 1835, increased these burdens until her health became seriously impaired. She had to give up. her long cherished hope of going abroad, to help support and care for the family and contribute towards educating her brothers and sisters. During 1836-37 she taught in A. Bronson Alcott's school in Boston, and 1837-38 in the Green Street School at Providence, Rhode Island. In 1839 the Fuller family moved to Jamaica Plain, where they resided during the next three years. After that they returned to Cambridge and remained there until the home was broken up in 1844. Margaret Fuller published in 1839 a translation of Eckermann's Conversations nvitk Goethe, which was followed in 1842 by a translation of The Letters of Gilnderode and Bettine von Arnim. During the summer of 1843 Miss Fuller took a trip on, and in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. Summer on the Lakes, published during the same year, is an account of her experiences and impressions on this trip. Woman in the Nineteenth Century came out in 1844, and Papers on Literature and Art, a collection of her magazine and newspaper articles previously published, in 1846. In 1852, her collected works, edited by her brother, appeared, in which the volume. At Home and Abroad, including a poetic translation of Goethe's Tasso, and much besides which had never before appeared was published. Later in 1895, and 1903, two additional works, Margaret and Her Friends, a synopsis of ten "Conversations" held in Boston, 1839-40, and the Love Letters of Margaret Fuller appeare d. Her most important work, however, was as

He was of Puritan stock, doubtless conscientious and well-meaning in his way, a man of vigor and well-informed, since he graduated with honors from Harvard University. But he was also a man of undue self-assertion, often very impractical, and in some respects narrow. He was "a character, in its social aspect, of quite the common sort," said his daughter. His great aim of existence was to be an honored citizen, and to have a home, "to work for distinction in the community, and for the means of supporting a family."^