June 1862

I know a lady who has that sovereign sweet- ness of temper that she receives the simplest details of any statement of any business from woman or child with such happy anticipating intelligence, that it acquires at once importance, breadth, and better intent, from her welcome. Mrs. Ripley used to say in Waltham, " I bless God every day for Mary Ripley's ' existence." So think I of my Benvenuta.

Henry Thoreau " remains erect, calm, self- subsistent, before me, and I read him not only truly in his Journal, but he is not long out of mind when I walk, and, as to-day, row upon the pond. He chose wisely no doubt for himself to be the bachelor of thought and nature that he was, — how near to the old monks in their ascetic religion! He had no talent for wealth, and knew how to be poor without the least hint of squalor or inelegance. Perhaps he fell — all of us do — into his way of living, without fore- casting it much, but approved and confirmed it with later wisdom.''