They may be fitly prefaced by these few but
emphatic words from a letter of one of her brothers:--
"I was much impressed, during my childhood, at Groton, with
an incident that first disclosed to me the tenderness of
Margaret's character. I had always viewed her as a being
of different nature from myself, to whose altitudes of
intellectual life I had no thought of ascending. She had been
absent during the winter, and on her return asked me for some
account of my experiences. Supposing that she could not enter
into such insignificant details, I was not frank or warm in
my confidence, though I gave no reason for my reserve; and the
matter had passed from my mind, when our mother told me that
Margaret had shed tears, because I seemed to heed so little
her sisterly sympathy. 'Tears from one so learned,' thought I,
'for the sake of one so inferior!' Afterwards, my heart opened
to her, as to no earthly friend.
"The characteristic trait of Margaret, to which all
her talents and acquirements were subordinate, was
sympathy,--universal sympathy. She had that large intelligence
and magnanimity which enabled her to comprehend the struggles
and triumphs of every form of character.
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