5–11 July 1841

Ah, ye old ghosts ! Ye builders of dungeons in the air ! Why do I ever allow you to encroach on me a moment ; a moment, to win me to your hapless company ? In every week there is some hour when I read my commission in every cipher of Nature, and know that I was made for another office, a professor of the Joyous Science, a de- tector and delineator of occult harmonies and unpublished beauties, a herald of civility, nobility, learning, and wisdom ; an affirmer of the One Law, yet as one who should affirm it in music or dancing. A priest of the Soul, yet one who would better love to celebrate it through the beauty of health and harmonious power.