29 October–4 November 1838

We are wiser, I see well, than we know.' . . .

And I am to seek to solve for my fellows the problem of Human Life, in words, — for that is the subject advertised for my lectures presently. Well, boy, what canst thou say ? Knowest thou its law? its way? its equipoise? its endless end? Seest thou the inevitable conditions which all seek to dodge ? ' . . .

Heard I not that a fair girl said, She would not be "charitable" as she wished to, because it looked to her so \i]/ie feeding ? Rem acu tetigisti. To all let us be men, and not pastry-cooks.

'The TrismegisH. — There is always a higher region of thought, — soar as high as you will ; and in literature very few words are found touch- ing the best thought; Laodamia; James Nay- ler's dying words ; the Address of the parlia- mentary soldier to the army, in Coleridge's Friend; and Sampson Reed's oration ; these are of the highest moral class.

I wish society to be a Congress of Sovereigns without the pride, but with the power. There- fore I do not like to see a worthy woman resem ble those flowers that cannot bear transportation, and when I behold her in a foreign house per- ceive instantly that she has lost an inch or two of height — her manners not so /«//as they were at home. A woman should always challenge our respect, and never move our compassion. If they be great only on their own ground, and de- mure and restless in a new house, they have all to learn. If people were all true, we should feel that all persons were infinitely deep natures. But now in an evening party you have no variety of persons, but only one person. For, say what you will, to whom you will, — they shall all render one and the same answer, without thought, with- out heart, — a conversation of the lips. . . .