July 1841

The Actual. — O Protean Nature, whose energy is change evermore, thou hurlest thyself into a berry or a drop, thou lodgest all thought in a word, all moral quality in the glance of an eye, but tell me, art thou only such a creator as bards and orators ? Is thy power only for dis- play ? Or canst thou change the form of this waste and unnecessary day into an hour of love and fitness ? When I see what waste strength is in friendship and in the writing and reading of modern society, the world seems to exist to dilettantism.