To the Same.
SHEFFIELD, Aug. 18, 1845.
MY DEAR FRIEND,-. . . The whole previous page is to no purpose but to
let you know that I have thought about you incessantly; for you know
that I have a sympathy not only with your heart, but with your head,
if that be again, as I suppose it is, the seat of your trouble. Heads
certainly can bear a great deal. Mine has; and [179] I am now reading
the work, in six volumes, of a man who was out of his head for years
from hard study; and yet these volumes are full of thought, full of
minute and endless explications on the greatest of subjects. It is
the work of Auguste Comte on the "Philosophie Positive," essentially
an attempt at a philosophic appreciation of the whole course of human
thought and history. With an awfully involved style, with a great
over-valuation of his own labor, he seems to me to have done a great
deal. I have met with nothing on the philosophy of history to compare
with it, as philosophy, though I have read Vico and Herder.
I shall not be easy till I know something about your health and
plans. My vacation is nearly ended. I go down to New York the 1st of
September. . . .
As ever yours,