23–29 September 1839

Friendship. — I do not wish to treat friend- ships daintily.' ... I have the most romantic relations precisely with my oldest friends. . . . Who is rich, who is fashionable, who is high- bred, has great hindrances to success [in friend- ships]. Very hardly will he attain to mastery with all these ribbons, laces and plumes, in a tug where all the hap depends on eternal facts, on intrinsic nobleness and the contempt of trifles. Genius and Virtue, like diamonds, are best plain set, — set in lead, set in poverty. And the high- est Beauty should be plain set.

Usefulness is always handsome, uselessness always vulgar. Hint a little service of the household, — a lady will instantly doit, a nurse will toss her foolish head with, " Lor ! I '11 call someone."

A fair child went by who made me think, as others have done, that a mixture of Lethe adds to beauty.