Part 19 (1/2)
_Nov 19th_--I have read to-day one canto of Dante's Inferno and eight or ten pages of Cicero de Amicitia In this, as well as in de Senectute which I have just finished, I am much interested I confess I aely the moderns are indebted to the ancients; how many wise observations on life, and death, the soul, tieneration since the days of Cicero
_Jan 14th, 1836_--I spent last evening with Mr Dana, and the conversation was, of course, of great interest We talked of so Reviews of the day, and then of the character of our literature as connected with our political institutions This led to a long discussion of the latter subject, but as the same views are expressed in Mr D's article on Law, I shall pass it over [2] I differed froard to the French comedies, especially those of Moliere; however, he allowed that they contain genuine humor, but they are confined to the exhibition of _one_ ridiculous point in the character, instead of giving us the wholeI have had one of the periods of _insight,_ when the highest spiritual truths pertaining to the divine and huht and evidence, as well as the evidence of other truths No speculations, no ridicule can shake my faith in that which I thus see and feel I was particularly interested in thinking of the regeneration of the spirit and the part which Faith, Hope, and Love, have in effecting it
_Sab 23d_--It seems to htly believed, toabsolutely and perfectly happy
_Jan 14th, 1839_--Wednesday evening attended Mr Emerson's lecture on Genius, of which I shall _attehtful Thursday ave me a ticket for his course Afterwards Mr Dana called It seems to me that I have lived _backwards;_ in other words, the faculties of my mind which were earliest developed, were those which in other ination, in so far as I have any at all, have followed
_Sat Jan 26th_--My occupations in the way of books at present, consist in reading ”Antigone,” Guizot's ”History,” Lockhart's ”Scott,”
and _sundries_ I ae extracts fro an article about him, if the fates shall so will it
[4]
_Thurs Jan 1st_--Mr Eht was on Comedy He professed to enter on the subject with reluctance, as conscious of a deficiency in the organ of the ludicrous--a profession, however, that was not substantiated very well by the lecture itself, which convulsed the audience with laughter He spoke in the commencement of the silent history written in the faces of an asse to a spectator as if their lives ritten in their features
_25th_--I began yesterday Schleiermacher's ”Christliche Glaube”--a profound, learned, and difficult work, I as,” Landor's ”Pericles and Aspasia,” and ”The Gurney Papers” Considering that I was already in the midst of several books, this is rather too much, but I could not help it; the books were lent me and must be read and returned speedily I have been all thean abstract of the Report of the Prison Discipline Society, and am wearied and stupefied
_Jan 7th, 1840_--Went to Mr Ripley's where I , and listened to a discussion of Spinoza's religious opinions This afternoon Mr D caical points This evening, heard Prof Silliman I have nearly finished Fichte, and like hi the roots of the speculative in the practical reason It seerows out of the other, but that they are coincident spheres Still, there is a truth, a great truth, in what he says It is true that action is often the ainst speculative doubts and perplexities When you are in the dark about this or that point, ask what command does conscience iht
These extracts will suffice to show the quality and extent of her reading What sort of fruit her reading and study bore may be seen by her articles on Claudius and Goethe, in the New York Review No abler discussion of the genius and writings of Goethe had at that time appeared in this country; while the article on Claudius was probably the first tomany of the later years of her life Mrs Hopkins was a s, both physical and mental, as artlessly told in little diaries which she kept, is ”wondrous pitiful;”
no pen of fiction could equal its siain, as she herself knew, she was on the very verge of insanity; nothing, probably, saving her fro patience and a mother's tenderness ministered, in season and out of season, to her relief Often would he steal ho his students hoatch the stars, and pass a sleepless night at her bedside, reading to her and by all sorts of gentle appliances trying to soothe her irritated nerves
And this devotion ran on, without variableness or shadow of turning, year after year, giving itself no rest until her eyes were closed in death [5]
Let us now resume our narrative A portion of the summer of 1862 was passed by Mrs Prentiss at Newport Her season of rest was again invaded by severe illness aust 3d, she writes to Mrs Sood sense and experience, thinks G will not get well Sometimes, in awful et quite elated Last night as I lay awake, too weary to sleep, I heard a harsh, rasping sound like a large saw I thought soular and frequent But after a ti soldier who lives farther from this house than Miss H does froh! Oh, this war! this war! I never hated and revolted against it as I did then I had heard so of consumption in this street, but till then was too absorbed with h, as the rest had done I never realised how I felt about our country till I found the terror of losing, a link out of that little golden chain that encirclesHave the times ever looked so black as they do now? We see round without chart or pilot
Teeks later, August 17th, she writes to her cousin, Miss shi+p thin and white, and feeling hungry and weak; but little H has been sick with the saot your letter and the little cat, for which G and I thank you very much I should think it would about kill you to cook all day even for our soldiers, but on the whole can not blaet killed in their service I am impressed more and er and undergo every suffering, while we sit at ho the last five weeks has not been of a very luxurious kind, and I have felt alht after night of sleeplessness has pulled down , instead of rejoicing that I am not left unchastised
After a careworn summer at Newport, she ith the children to Williamstohere a month was passed with her brother-in-law, Professor Hopkins The following letters relate to this visit:
_To her Husband, Willialad to find that you place reliance on the reports of our late victory, for I have been in great suspense, seeing only The World, which was throwing up its hat and declaring the war virtually ended I have no faith in such premature assertions, of which we have had so many, but was most anxious to know your opinion Do not fail to keepon The children are all out of doors and enjoying theone on horseback to see about his buckwheat He took h forty fences (ot a vast amount of exercise, which did not result in any better sleep, however, than no exercise does Caro H readletter fro the scene at Bull Run when he went there five days after the battle It is very painful to find suchaccount of a young felloho lay mortally wounded, where he had lain uncared-for with his coed to decline re, as they had only roo Mr H to see that he was reet home if they left him, he was told that it was not possible to make room for him in this train of ambulances As Mr H tore hiive myself away; 'Tis all that I can do”
The torture of the wounded ave each of theh to kill three well s and licked my hands lest they should lose a drop,” he adds As a contrast to this letter, sorounds yesterday to get bouquets, and thought if _their_ folks had a ”yard” so gayly decked with flowers they would feel set up
_To Mrs Smith, Williauid, or lazy, ever since I came here, and for a few days past have been miserable; but I arows upon me every day But the Professor is entirely absorbed in his loss He does not know it, or else thinks he does not show it, for he makes no complaint, but it is in every tone and word and look It is plain that Louisa's ill-health, which ht have weaned a selfish man from her, only endeared her to hiht, that he misses her and the _care_ of her, as a mother does her sick child If we ride out he says, ”Here I often cas, ”That is a note she used to love;” if we see a flower, ”That is one of the flowers she loved” He has an astonishi+ng amount of journalfrooods have run up! I gave twenty cents for a yard of silicia (is that the way to spell it?) and suppose everything else has rushed up too I hope you are prepared to tell o
_To her Husband, Willia over Louisa's papers and found an enormous mass of manuscript; journals, extract books, translations, and work enough planned and begun for e is faith in God, and in the certainty that her lingering illness was more acceptable to Him than years of active usefulness, and such extraordinary usefulness even as she was so fitted for I read over soo; and the sense this gave y, was, for a tireatly discouraged and depressed, yes, weary of my life, because it seems to me that broken down and worn out as I a burdened, I could not ood deal I see little for us to do but what you suggest: to cheer each other up and wear out rather than rust out It is more and more clear to me, that patience is our chief duty on earth, and that we can not rest here
I am anxious to knohat you think of the President's Proclamation [6]