But he only is in the right who in the valley forgets
not the hill-prospect, and knows in darkness that the sun will
rise again. That is the real life which is subordinated to,
not merged in, the ideal; he is only wise who can bring the
lowest act of his life into sympathy with its highest thought.
And this I take to be the one only aim of our pilgrimage here.
I agree with those who think that no true philosophy will try
to ignore or annihilate the material part of man, but will
rather seek to put it in its place, as servant and minister to
the soul.'
VI.
THE WOMAN.
* * * * *
In 1839 I had met Margaret upon the plane of intellect. In the summer
of 1840, on my return from the West, she was to be revealed in a new
aspect.
It was a radiant and refreshing morning, when I entered the parlor of
her pleasant house, standing upon a slope beyond Jamaica Plain to the
south. She was absent at the moment, and there was opportunity to look
from the windows on a cheerful prospect, over orchards and meadows,
to the wooded hills and the western sky. Presently Margaret appeared,
bearing in her hand a vase of flowers, which she had been gathering in
the garden.
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