19–25 July 1847

Pear trees this morning in high prosperity. Hardly a tough, dry, wormy dwarf in all the garden but is forced to show a bud or a shoot to-day. Flemish Beauty meanwhile and the Golden Beurre of Bilboa, and the Green Prin- cesses who keep their incognito so well near the plum trees, show a foot and a half of growth respectively.

Of Alcott it is plain to see that he never loses sight of the order of things and thoughts before him. The thought he would record is some- thing, but the place, the page, the book in which it is to be written are something also, not less than the proposition. So that usually in the attention to the marshalling, the thing mar- shalled dwindles and disappears. One thing more. I used to tell him that he had no senses. And it is true that they are with him merely vehicular, and do not constitute a pleasure and a temptation of themselves. We had a good proof of It this morning. He wanted to know " Why the boys waded in the water after pond lilies ? " Why, because they will sell in town for a cent apiece and every man and child likes to carry one to church for a cologne bottle. "What!" said he, "have they a perfume? I did not know it." See also the account of Chau- cer's Canon.