The Life Legacy of Margaret Fuller by Julia Ward Howe

Author:Julia Ward Howe [Howe, Julia Ward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Feminism & Feminist Theory, Biography & Autobiography, Women
ISBN: 9788026884941
Google: HoZjDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: e-artnow
Published: 2018-03-19T05:51:27+00:00

CHAPTER X.

OCEAN VOYAGE.—ARRIVAL AT LIVERPOOL.—THE LAKE COUNTRY.—WORDSWORTH.—MISS MARTINEAU.—EDINBURGH.—DE QUINCEY.—MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS.—NIGHT ON BEN LOMOND.—JAMES MARTINEAU.—WILLIAM J. FOX.—LONDON.—JOANNA BAILLIE.—MAZZINI.—THOMAS CARLYLE.—MARGARET'S IMPRESSIONS OF HIM.—HIS ESTIMATE OF HER.

Table of Contents

The time had now come when Margaret's darling wish was to be fulfilled. An opportunity of going abroad offered itself under circumstances which she felt able to accept. On the 1st of August, 1846, she sailed for Europe in the "Cambria," then the favorite steamer of the Cunard line, with Captain Judkins, the most popular and best known of the company's commanders. Her travelling companions were Mr. and Mrs. Marcus Spring, of Eaglewood, N. J.

She anticipated much from this journey,—delight, instruction, and the bodily view of a whole world of beauties which she knew, as yet, only ideally. Beyond and unguessed lay the mysteries of fate, from whose depths she was never to emerge in her earthly form.

Margaret already possessed the spirit of all that is most valuable in European culture. She knew the writers of the Old World by study, its brave souls by sympathy, its works of art, more imperfectly, through copies and engravings. The Europe which she carried in her mind was not that which the superficial observer sees with careless eyes, nor could it altogether correspond with that which she, in her careful and thoughtful travel, would discern. But the possession of the European mind was a key destined to unlock for her the true significance of European society.

The voyage was propitious. Arriving in England, Margaret visited the Mechanics' Institute in Liverpool, and found the "Dial" quoted in an address recently given by its director. Sentences from the writings of Charles Sumner and Elihu Burritt adorned the pages of Bradshaw's "Railway Guide," and she was soon called upon to note the wide discrepancy between the views of enlightened Englishmen and the selfish policy of their government, corresponding to the more vulgar passions and ambitions of the people at large.

Passing into the Lake Country, she visited Wordsworth at Ambleside, and found "no Apollo, flaming with youthful glory, but, instead, a reverend old man, clothed in black, and walking with cautious step along the level garden path." The aged poet, then numbering seventy-six years, "but of a florid, fair old age," showed the visitors his household portraits, his hollyhocks, and his fuchsias. His secluded mode of life, Margaret learned, had so separated him from the living issues of the time, that the needs of the popular heart touched him but remotely. She found him, however, less intolerant than she had feared concerning the repeal of the Corn Laws, a measure upon which public opinion was at the time strongly divided.

In this neighborhood Margaret again saw Miss Martineau, at a new home "presented to her by the gratitude of England for her course of energetic and benevolent effort." Dean Milman, historian and dramatist, was here introduced to Margaret, who describes him as "a specimen of the polished, scholarly man of the world."

Margaret now visited various places of interest in Scotland, and in Edinburgh saw Dr.

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