" Neither was her self-regard of an engrossing
temper. On the contrary, the sense of personal dignity taught her
the worth of the lowliest human being, and her intense desire for
harmonious conditions quickened a boundless compassion for the
squalid, downcast, and drudging multitude. She aspired to live in
majestic fulness of benignant and joyful activity, leaving a track of
light with every footstep; and, like the radiant Iduna, bearing to
man the golden apples of immortality, she would have made each meeting
with her fellows rich with some boon that should never fade, but
brighten in bloom forever.
This characteristic self-esteem determined the quality of Margaret's
influence, which was singularly penetrating, and most beneficent where
most deeply and continuously felt. Chance acquaintance with her, like
a breath from the tropics, might have prematurely burst the buds of
feeling in sensitive hearts, leaving after blight and barrenness.
Natures, small in compass and of fragile substance, might have been
distorted and shattered by attempts to mould themselves on her grand
model. And in her seeming unchartered impulses,--whose latent law was
honorable integrity,--eccentric spirits might have found encouragement
for capricious license.
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