that we do so,
while so fitted to live deeply in them, shows that beauty is
the end but not the means.

'I have just been reading the new poems of Tennyson. Much has
he thought, much suffered, since the first ecstasy of so fine
an organization clothed all the world with rosy light. He has
not suffered himself to become a mere intellectual voluptuary,
nor the songster of fancy and passion, but has earnestly
revolved the problems of life, and his conclusions are calmly
noble. In these later verses is a still, deep sweetness;
how different from the intoxicating, sensuous melody of his
earlier cadence! I have loved him much this time, and taken
him to heart as a brother. One of his themes has long been
my favorite,--the last expedition of Ulysses,--and his, like
mine, is the Ulysses of the Odyssey, with his deep romance of
wisdom, and not the worldling of the Iliad. How finely marked
his slight description of himself and of Telemachus. In Dora,
Locksley Hall, the Two Voices, Morte D'Arthur, I find my own
life, much of it, written truly out.'

* * * * *

_Concord, August 25. 1842._--Beneath this roof of peace,
beneficence, and intellectual activity, I find just the
alternation of repose and satisfying pleasure that I need. * *
*

'Do not find fault with the hermits and scholars. The true text
is:--

"Mine own Telemachus
He does his work--I mine."

'All do the work, whether they will or no; but he is "mine
own Telemachus" who does it in the spirit of religion, never
believing that the last results can be arrested in any one
measure or set of measures, listening always to the voice of
the Spirit,--and who does this more than ----?

'After the first excitement of intimacy with him,--when I
was made so happy by his high tendency, absolute purity, the
freedom and infinite graces of an intellect cultivated much
beyond any I had known,--came with me the questioning season.
I was greatly disappointed in my relation to him. I was,
indeed, always called on to be worthy,--this benefit was sure
in our friendship. But I found no intelligence of my best
self; far less was it revealed to me in new modes; for not
only did he seem to want the living faith which enables one to
discharge this holiest office of a friend, but he absolute