’A discourse from Dr. C. on the spirituality of man’s nature.  This was delightful!  I came away in the most happy, hopeful, and heroic mood.  The tone of the discourse was so dignified, his manner was so benignant and solemnly earnest, in his voice there was such a concentration of all his force, physical and moral, to give utterance to divine truth, that I felt purged as by fire.  If some speakers feed intellect more, Dr. C. feeds the whole spirit.  O for a more calm, more pervading faith in the divinity of my own nature!  I am so far from being thoroughly tempered and seasoned, and am sometimes so presumptuous, at others so depressed.  Why cannot I lay more to heart the text, “God is never in a hurry:  let man be patient and confident”?

PROVIDENCE.

In the spring of 1837, Margaret received a very favorable offer to become a principal teacher in the Greene Street School, at Providence, R.I.

’The proposal is, that I shall teach the elder girls my favorite branches, for four hours a day,—­choosing my own hours, and arranging the course,—­for a thousand dollars a year, if, upon trial, I am well enough pleased to stay.  This would be independence, and would enable me to do many slight services for my family.  But, on the other hand, I am not sure that I shall like the situation, and am sanguine that, by perseverance, the plan of classes in Boston might be carried into full effect.  Moreover, Mr. Ripley,—­who is about publishing a series of works on Foreign Literature,—­has invited me to prepare the “Life of Goethe,” on very advantageous terms.  This I should much prefer.  Yet when the thousand petty difficulties which surround us are considered, it seems unwise to relinquish immediate independence.’

She accepted, therefore, the offer which promised certain means of aiding her family, and reluctantly gave up the precarious, though congenial, literary project.

SCHOOL EXPERIENCES.

’The new institution of which I am to be “Lady Superior” was dedicated last Saturday.  People talk to me of the good I am to do; but the last fortnight has been so occupied in the task of arranging many scholars of various ages and unequal training, that I cannot yet realize this new era. * *

’The gulf is vast, wider than I could have conceived possible, between me and my pupils; but the sight of such deplorable ignorance, such absolute burial of the best powers, as I find in some instances, makes me comprehend, better than before, how such a man as Mr. Alcott could devote his life to renovate elementary education.  I have pleasant feelings when I see that a new world has already been opened to them. * *

’Nothing of the vulgar feeling towards teachers, too often to be observed in schools, exists towards me.  The pupils seem to