it has something of good, but also much of bad and
even worst. We shall see. If I print the
thing, we shall surely take in America again; either
by stereotype or in some other way. Fear not
that!—Do you attend at all to this new
Laudism
of ours? It spreads far and wide among our Clergy
in these days; a most notable symptom, very cheering
to me many ways; whether or not one of the fatalest
our poor Church of England has ever exhibited, and
betokening swifter ruin to it than any other, I do
not inquire. Thank God, men do discover at last
that there is still a God present in their affairs,
and must be, or their affairs are of the Devil, naught,
and worthy of being sent to the Devil! This
once given, I find that all is given; daily History,
in Kingdom and in Parish, is an
experimentum crucis
to show what is the Devil’s and what not.
But on the whole are we not the
formalest
people ever created under this Sun? Cased and
overgrown with Formulas, like very lobsters with their
shells, from birth upwards; so that in the man we
see only his breeches, and believe and swear that
wherever a pair of old breeches are there is a man!
I declare I could both laugh and cry. These
poor good men, merciful, zealous, with many sympathies
and thoughts, there do they vehemently appeal to me,
Et tu, Brute? Brother, wilt thou too insist
on the breeches being old,—not ply a needle
among us here?—To the naked Caliban, gigantic,
for whom such breeches would not be a glove, who is
stalking and groping there in search of new breeches
and accoutrements, sure to get them, and to tread
into nonentity whoever hinders him in the search,—they
are blind as if they had no eyes. Sartorial
men; ninth-parts of a man:—enough of them.
The second Number of the Dial has also arrived
some days ago. I like it decidedly better than
the first; in fact, it is right well worth being
put on paper, and sent circulating;—I find
only, as before that it is still too much of a soul
for circulating as it should. I wish you could
in future contrive to mark at the end of each Article
who writes it, or give me some general key for knowing.
I recognize Emerson readily; the rest are of [Greek]
for most part. But it is all good and very good
as a soul; wants only a body, which want means
a great deal! Your Paper on Literature is incomparably
the worthiest thing hitherto; a thing I read with
delight. Speak out, my brave Emerson; there
are many good men that listen! Even what you
say of Goethe gratifies me; it is one of the few things
yet spoken of him from personal insight, the sole
kind of things that should be spoken! You call
him actual, not ideal; there is truth
in that too; and yet at bottom is not the whole truth
rather this: The actual well-seen is the
ideal? The actual, what really is and
exists: the past, the present, the future no
less, do all lie there! Ah yes! one day you will