23–29 August 1841

How noble in secret are the men who have never stooped nor betrayed their faith ! The two or three rusty, perchance wearisome, souls, who could.never bring themselves to the small- est composition with society, rise with grandeur in the background like statues of the gods, whilst we listen in the dusty crowd to the adroit flat- tery and literary politics of those who stoop a little. If these also had stooped a little, then had we no examples, our ideas had been all un- executed : we had been alone with the mind. The solitary hours — who are their favorites ? Who cares for the summer fruit, the " sopsa- vines " that are early ripe by help of the worm at the core ? Give me the winter apple, the rus- settin and pippin, cured and sweetened by all the heat and all the frost of the year.