'Poet of Nature! Gentlest of the wise,
Most airy of the fanciful, most keen
Of satirists!--thy thoughts, like butterflies,
Still near the sweetest scented flowers have been
With Titian's colors thou canst sunset paint,
With Raphael's dignity, celestial love;
With Hogarth's pencil, each deceit and feint
Of meanness and hypocrisy reprove;
Canst to devotion's highest flight sublime
Exalt the mind, by tenderest pathos' art,
Dissolve, in purifying tears, the heart,
Or bid it, shuddering, recoil at crime;
The fond illusions of the youth and maid,
At which so many world-formed sages sneer,
When by thy altar-lighted torch displayed,
Our natural religion must appear.
All things in thee tend to one polar star,
Magnetic all thy influences are!'
'Some murmur at the "want of system" in Richter's writings.
'A labyrinth! a flowery wilderness!
Some in thy "slip-boxes" and "honey-moons"
Complain of--_want of order_, I confess,
But not of _system_ in its highest sense.
Who asks a guiding clue through this wide mind,
In love of Nature such will surely find.
In tropic climes, live like the tropic bird,
Whene'er a spice-fraught grove may tempt thy stay;
Nor be by cares of colder climes disturbed--
No frost the summer's bloom shall drive away;
Nature's wide temple and the azure dome
Have plan enough, for the free spirit's home!'
'Your Schiller has already given me great pleasure. I have
been reading the "Revolt in the Netherlands" with intense
interest, and have reflected much upon it. The volumes are
numbered in my little book-case, and as the eye runs over
them, I thank the friendly heart that put all this genius and
passion within my power.
'I am glad, too, that you thought of lending me "Bigelow's
Elements." I have studied the Architecture attentively, till
I feel quite mistress of it all. But I want more engravings,
Vitruvius, Magna Græcia, the Ionian Antiquities, &c.
Meanwhile, I have got out all our tours in Italy. Forsyth,
a book I always loved much, I have re-read with increased
pleasure, by this new light. Goethe, too, studied architecture
while in Italy; so his books are full of interesting
information; and Madame De Stael, though not deep, is
tasteful.'
* * * * *
'American History! Seriously, my mind is regenerating as to
my country, for I am beginning to appreciate the United States
and its great men. The violent antipathies,--the result of an
exaggerated love for, shall I call it by so big a name as
the "poetry of being?"--and the natural distrust arising from
being forced to hear the conversation of half-bred men, all
whose petty feelings were roused to awkward life by the paltry
game of local politics,--are yielding to reason and calmer
knowledge. Had I but been educated in the knowledge of such
men as Jefferson, Franklin, Rush! I have learned now to know
them partially. And I rejoice, if only because my father and
I can have so much in common on this topic. All my other
pursuits have led me away from him; here he has much
information and ripe judgment. But, better still, I hope to
feel no more that sometimes despairing, sometimes insolently
contemptuous, feeling of incongeniality with my time and
place. Who knows but some proper and attainable object of
pursuit may present itself to the cleared eye? At any rate,
wisdom is good, if it brings neither bliss nor glory.'
* * * * *
_March_, 1834.--Four pupils are a serious and fatiguing charge
for one of my somewhat ardent and impatient disposition.
Five days in the week I have given daily lessons in three
languages, in Geography and History, besides many other
exercises on alternate days. This has consumed often eight,
always five hours of my day. There has been, also, a great
deal of needle-work to do, which is now nearly finished, so
that I shall not be obliged to pass my time about it when
everything looks beautiful, as I did last summer. We have
had very poor servants, and, for some time past, only one.
My mother has been often ill. My grandmother, who passed the
winter with us, has been ill. Thus, you may imagine, as I am
the only grown-up daughter, that my time has been considerably
taxed.
'But as, sad or merry, I must always be learning, I laid
down a course of study at the beginning of winter, comprising
certain subjects, about which I had always felt deficient.
These were the History and Geography of modern Europe,
beginning the former in the fourteenth century; the Elements
of Architecture; the works of Alfieri, with his opinions
on them; the historical and critical works of Goethe and
Schiller, and the outlines of history of our own country.
'I chose this time as one when I should have nothing to
distract or dissipate my mind. I have nearly completed this
course, in the style I proposed,--not minute or thorough. I
confess,--though I have had only three evenings in the week,
and chance hours in the day, for it. I am very glad I
have undertaken it, and feel the good effects already.
Occasionally, I try my hand at composition, but have not
completed anything to my own satisfaction. I have sketched
a number of plans, but if ever accomplished, it must be in a
season of more joyful energy, when my mind has been renovated,
and refreshed by change of scene or circumstance. My
translation of Tasso cannot be published at present, if 'it
ever is.'
* * * * *
'My object is to examine thoroughly, as far as my time
and abilities will permit, the evidences of the Christian
Religion. I have endeavored to get rid of this task as much
and as long as possible; to be content with superficial
notions, and, if I may so express it, to adopt religion as a
matter of taste. But I meet with infidels very often; two
or three of my particular friends are deists; and their
arguments, with distressing sceptical notions of my own, are
haunting me forever. I must satisfy myself; and having once
begun, I shall go on as far as I can.
'My mind often swells with thoughts on these subjects, which
I long to pour out on some person of superior calmness and
strength, and fortunate in more accurate knowledge. I should
feel such a quieting reaction. But, generally, it seems best
that I should go through these conflicts alone. The process
will be slower, more irksome, more distressing, but the
results will be my own, and I shall feel greater confidence in
them.'