that Martha had strayed to the river, and quietly asked of its stillness
the repose she sought. The boats gathered around the spot. With every
implement that could be of service the melancholy search began. Long
intervals of fearful silence ensued, but at length, towards midnight, the
sweet face of the dead girl was raised more placidly to the stars than
ever it had been to the sun.

"So ended a village tragedy. The reader may possibly find in it the
original of the thrilling conclusion of the 'Blithedale Romance,' and
learn anew that dark as is the thread with which Hawthorne weaves his
spells, it is no darker than those with which tragedies are spun, even in
regions apparently so torpid as Concord."

Far too much has been made of the realistic elements in the "Blithedale
Romance." Hawthorne says in his preface that "he has occasionally availed
himself of his actual reminiscences;" but it cannot be claimed that he did
anything more. The fact seems to be that he used such reminiscences and
incidents merely as stimuli to his imagination, that the real romance of
the story was purely of his own creation. So far as he used the facts of
his life at Brook Farm it was to give an air of reality to his story; and
in no other sense can it be accepted as truthful to Brook Farm life. For
instance, his Zenobia was in every sense an original creation, and not a
description of any person he had known. Three persons he knew at Brook
Farm gave him hints, traits of character, and points of departure for the
activity of his imagination. The stately elements in Zenobia resembled
those of Mrs. George Ripley, her luxurious tastes were like those of Mrs.
Almira Barlow, while her genius and brilliancy had a few similarities to
Margaret Fuller. His habit seems to have been to take a single incident in
the life of a person, and to make that the chief one in a character. In
this way his romances gained a realistic phase of a very impressive kind;