19–25 October 1840

And must I go and do somewhat if I would learn new secrets of self-reliance ? for my chap- ter is not finished. But self-reliance is precisely that secret, — to make your supposed deficiency redundancy. If I am true, the theory is, the very want of action, my very impotency, shall become a greater excellency than all skill and toil.

Osman. — Fine people do not prosper with me: they are so curious and busy with their Claude Lorraine glasses, and their exploration of doves' necks and peacocks' tails, that they do not see the road, and the poor men who go up and down on it. I must go back to my cabin and be, as before, the trusty associate of those whom a household and highway experience has chastened, and be the poor man's poet. I should break with one fine person, if I did not see, or think I see, my own rude self hid under the present mask.