7–13 May 1838

Aunt Mary said of a sermon she had heard: " If they say it 's good, then 't is good ; if they say it's bad, then 't is bad." It is even so. In all that we hear and read there ever is so much of nature that a trifle hath some majesty, and the mediocre production may be cracked up by the affectionate into a sort of Olvmoian merit and find allowance from us, though not its spon- taneous praisers. Bowles's sonnets, Southey's Roderick, Wordsworth's Waggoner, may come to be esteemed very fine, — such latitude of aboriginal worth. Nature yields to everything not contrarious.

A letter this morning from T. Carlyle. How should he be so poor? It is the most creditable poverty I know of.