Letter from Thomas Treadwell Stone to George Willis Cooke, May 31, 1882

Vol 2. p. 382 ? Ask about letter from Fuller. Newton May 31. 1882 Dear Sir, I understand that you have written a letter to me which is entitled to an answer. I am sorry to say that it has failed to reach me; so that I may be unable to give the reply which it asks. It {relates ?], however, as I am told, to the Dial, that much [ridiculous ?], occasionally admired, more commonly neglected journal of the old Transcendentalism. I cannot say much about it. During the Shah period of its high existence I lived in the eastern part of Maine, and was the only subscriber for it, I presume, in that region. With the exception of Mr. Emerson whom I had met some years before when he once visited his relatives in my native town - Miss Mary [Mosely ?] being one of them - I have never known one of the persons - unless Dr. Hodge, then of Bangor, be considered one of them - by whom the Dial was started and conducted. And by the way the statements of Mrs. Alcott, I believe - this I became a member of the Transcendental Club, if that is the name of it, is

a mistake. If I had been near enough to Boston while it was in existence, I might have sought the fellowship which it expressed; but hundreds of miles to a poor "country parson" proved an obstacle not easy to surmount. After coming to Massachusetts in 1846, I was with others in the inception of the town and country club, which however had but a short, even if not frail or feverish, being. This, however, has nothing to do with the Dial. With that I had nothing to do but to read it and furnish one article, entitled Man in the Ages. Besides this in my correspondence with Miss Emerson I wrote a letter, which, without any purpose or thought of mine, was [ that most ?]of it published in the same Journal, in what Number I do not remember and have not the volume by me; and quite to my disconfort ascribed to a Calvinist. For although [they ?] connected with the churches called Orthodox, I have in my own mind [abj ?], I think, all sectarism. I received in those days a leter from Margaret Fuller pertaining to the Dial, which I am obliged to confess I never answered, simply because I had nothing to say. Farther than those unimportant things I do not remember any matter connecting me with a publication which [always ?] interested me, which I have always felt as a very significant part, although not unaware of defects. Of the movement itself which is partially represented I think still more highly. Transcendentalism and Abolitionism seem to me the two grave impulses of the decades preceeding the year 1830, and the spirit of both. I

trust, is alive now, as fresh and vigorous, let me hope, as the kind of a century ago. Both need of course to be disengaged from their temporary limitations and to recognize more distinctly the Supreme Spirit, the [ Real?] Presence of God with us; but the aspiration to [ ?] the Highest, even when the insight is dim, [ ?] the endeavor to bring human society into harmony with the Eternal Righteousness, must be perpetual. I will not trouble you, however, at greater length with [ ?] man's [ ?tions. Allow me to ask of you a personal favor. As many as two or three years ago I received a very kind letter from your neighbor, Mr. Beach. I was ill when it came, and for such after was unable either to read or write. When I recovered, I fully intended to answer it. But unhappily during my sickness it disappeared. I delayed writing in hope of finding it. It has not come back to me yet, much to my regret. Please do me the favor to report this story to the brother who remembered me so kindly, and assure him that, if I have appeared to neglect him, I certainly have not forgotten him, and shall not forget. Truly your friend and brother, Thomas T. Stone Rev. George W. Cooke. West Dedham