21–27 May 1838

(To S. M. Fuller.) Dwightcame here and we got as far as speech this time. I think I told you that between him and me, as chances so often with those we reckon intelligent, a good understanding was supposed, not certified. But I find him now a very accurate mind, active and genial with fine moral qualities, though not of great reading or variously cultivated. What is a great satisfaction, too, he has his own subject, music. A man must never ask another for an aim. I was at Medford the other day at a meet- ing of Hedge's Club. I was unlucky in going after several nights of vigils, and heard as though I heard not, and among gifted men I had not one thought or aspiration. But Alcott acquitted himself well, and made a due impression. So the meeting was good. I nevertheless read to- day with wicked pleasure the saying ascribed to Kant, that "detestable was the society of mere literary men." It must be tasted sparingly to keep its gusto. If you do not quit the high chair, lie quite down and roll on the ground a good deal, you become nervous and heavy- hearted. The poverty of topics, the very names of Carlyle, Channing, Cambridge, and the Re- views become presently insupportable. The dog that was fed on sugar died. So all this summer I shall talk of Chenangoes and my new garden spout; have you heard of my pig? I have planted forty-four pine-trees ; what will my tax be this year? — and never a word more of Goethe or Tennyson.