All emendations made by Arthur to Margaret's text appear in purple. Where Arthur supplanted Margaret's punctuation (a comma for a period, for example) only his punctuation is shown, but it is noted in purple so the reader may be alerted of the change and refer to Margaret's text at this same point. This was done to alert the reader to the change without undue editorial "barbed wire" of notations showing the original as well as the change. The parallel text allows the reader an easy means by which to note where changes where made and the ability to view the original side by side with the later edition.

Deletions made by Arthur appear in red. At times, Arthur deleted punctuation completely without supplanting; these instances appear in red. Arthur occasionally deleted words or changed the word order. These are also noted in red, followed, in purple, by his emendation.

The base text for this electronic edition is Margaret Fuller's 1844 text which the editors of this site obtained from the electronic edition scanned by the Library of Congress from the 2nd printing of the 1844 edition. Errors in the transcription of the Library of Congress were found and corrected by cross-checking the scanned text with the electronic photofacsimile images also provided by the Library of Congress.