LADY BLESSINGTON._DISTINGUISHED WOMEN_.
It is remarkable to what a degree woman develops her intellect in the spirit world.
Freed from the cares of maternity, she seems like some young goddess fresh from the hand of Jupiter. All nerve, electricity, and motion—her thoughts sparkling and full of flavor, and light, and life, this new-born Eve of the celestial kingdom inspires the down-trodden Eve of earth, and kindles to a blaze the whole male population of the spiritual globe.
Prominent among the women of the times who have emigrated to these shores from populous America, stands Margaret Fuller—a tall and impressive blonde—a woman of strong bias, and resolute as a lion when she has set foot upon a project. Earnest, passionate, and brilliant in conversation, she wields a powerful influence over many minds of a peculiar order; and through the few mediums whom she selects to represent her characteristics, she displays a calmness and coolness of reasoning and an excellence of judgment such as few are able to exhibit thus second handed.
She has, through the exercise of her genius, erected a beautiful villa upon a southern island, wherein she has displayed her poetic taste to advantage. There, in the midst of a luxuriant garden, she resides with her beautiful Angelo, a child of graceful form who was washed ashore from the sad wreck years ago, but now approaching the years of manhood, and in his looks the very personification of a young Mercury, blending the fire and passion of a Southern nature with the zeal and activity of the Northern.
Count Ossoli and his noble wife tear themselves away from the pleasures of this delightful state of existence and devote their sacred energies to the enfranchisement of Italy.
No Roman patriot, neither Garibaldi nor any of his compeers, equals them in their efforts for the freedom of that sunny land.
Madame Ossoli is sanguine of success.
Defeat she considers merely the plough and harrow for the ripe harvest of victory which will follow.
From her own eloquent lips I have heard her address to the Italian soldiers who, defeated and killed, marched to the spirit land.
She told them how she, in the midst of her new-born joy, in sight of her own native land, fought the fierce battle of the briny waves, and felt as she sat dying on the sinking wreck, that all she had striven for was in vain; how she had found that defeat, that engulping billow, had proved in the end a victory, and had placed her where she could watch over the destiny of Italia, her adopted country, and work for its regeneration, and fight for its liberty, as she could not have done had she been more successful in her plans on earth.
Another American woman, of less note, but also a reformer, is Eliza Farnham. She is not so emotional, has less sentiment and considerable originality, and is honest in her opinions and determined in her efforts to uplift her sex and ameliorate their condition.
She wields a powerful influence over a certain clique in the spirit world and on earth, and therefore deserves to be noticed among the women of the times. In person she is of dark complexion, with black hair and eyes, and strongly-marked brows, possessing much vivacity and caustic wit.
She is matron of a large Institution, or Circulorium, erected for the use of those spirits who make a practice of communicating with the inhabitants of earth. They there meet to converse upon the various means which they employ for transmitting intelligence, and to relate their successes and defeats with the various trance and clairvoyant mediums through whom they operate. There congregate those lecturers and orators who discourse through the organisms of numerous trance and inspirational mediums on earth. There also convene physicians and “medicine men” who control the large number of healing mediums who exercise their power throughout the United States and Europe. There, also, gather the prophets and seers, who, with vision clearer than that of ordinary spirits, warn mankind of danger and impress individuals to pursue certain courses of action, to go or come, to undertake and prosecute great designs for the seeming weal or woe of humanity.
From this lofty aviary she still sends forth her delicious, strains. The children of earth hear them in fainter notes through young poets who catch her inspiration. What she is doing for women in the world she inhabits will be felt ere long in both the continents of Europe and America.
Another remarkable person in this coterie of illustrious women must be mentioned—Charlotte Bronté—a lady who feels the true dignity and intellect of her sex with a force akin to manliness. Modest and retiring, she would yet pick up the gauntlet like any knight against the man who should say of a work of literary merit, “that it could never have been penned by a woman.”
Soft and delicate, yet strong and full of heroism, she represents woman, quicker to perceive the right than man, and capable of undergoing greater perils in executing her duty.
Charlotte Bronté is a slight, brown-haired girl, with an eye full of clairvoyant power. With her father, sisters, and poor reprobate of a brother, all united like a cluster-diamond, she lives in a home which they have selected, remarkable for its wild and picturesque beauty.
As a family they are like the ancient Scots, clannish—not in a vulgar acceptation of the term, but for the reason that they are kindred souls. The torch of genius flames in every member of that family, but Charlotte is the mover, the inspirer of them all. She possesses a greater degree of concentration and energy, and is more chivalrous and venturesome. She is exceedingly interested in woman, and devotes daily a portion of her time to visiting earth and suggesting ideas and thoughts to those whom she can influence.
In her new home she draws around her a circle of chosen spirits, among whom may be mentioned Thackeray (who esteems her as about the finest specimen of womanhood he has seen), Prince Albert, Scott, Hawthorne, the German Goethe, De Quincy, and others.
Few writers of romance have done more than she towards raising her sex above the frivolities of dress and fortune, and placing them where they shine conspicuous for their intellect and noble affections.
Bold and unsparing in analyzing woman’s heart in its uncontaminated simplicity as well as in its subtlety, she lighted a torch in behalf of her sex which flamed throughout the literary world, startling and dazzling the beholder—a light which will never be quenched.
Charlotte Bronté was on earth what is now known as a medium. Her belief in the supernatural she evinced in her works. If she had not indicated so much intellect, the critics would have termed her superstitious. They have inferred that it was the loneliness and sadness of her life which caused her to imagine she saw her beloved dead and heard unearthly voices calling her. But she has since told me that those mysterious influences were not morbid fancies, but realities. Being thus endowed clairvoyantly, and not only receptive but able to impart that which she receives, she exerts at the present moment an influence in the world of letters little dreamed of on earth.
I may here, without infringing on the requirements of good taste, allude to the tale she has dictated through this medium. That it is a story of powerful interest, all who read it will confess.
To many minds it will prove that her power is unabated, but every reader will perceive the characteristics of the Bronté family in the tale—characteristics which cannot be imitated—which are individualized in that family, and breathe of the lone moor on which they spent their earth ife, one of sad struggle of genius against circumstance and destiny.