tion of the actual title of the American periodical; but the word was several times used by Mr. Alcott to describe his own laborious diary; and he expressly states that it was transferred from his personal use to that of the proposed magazine. “To these papers,” he says, speaking of his own manuscript volumes, “I give the name of ‘The Dial,’” and indorses on a copy of the original prospectus, “This journal takes its name from a MS. of mine of like designation, referred to on pages 47 and 50 of this Scripture.”[1]
The new magazine now at last impending moved Mr. Brownson to make a final effort to unite it with his own, and he came to Mr. Alcott for that purpose, proposing that instead of establishing the “Dial” its projectors should write under their own signatures in the “Boston Quarterly Review.” Alcott says of this suggestion (October 19, 1839): “I shall speak with Emerson and Miss Fuller about it;” and the next day he and the lady went together to Concord and discussed the plan, apparently wisely rejecting it. He writes of Miss Fuller after his return, “She has a deeper insight into character than any of her contemporaries, and will enrich our literature.”[2]
We find her soon actively at work in writing to friends and summoning forth contributions. Thus she writes on New Year’s Day, to the Rev. W. H. Channing, then preaching at Cincinnati: —
