Miss Sedgwick, whom it taught us to
expect in "about a fortnight," has yet given no note of herself,
but shall be right welcome whenever she appears. Miss
Martineau's absence (she is in Switzerland this summer) will
probably be a loss to the fair Pilgrim;--which of course the rest
of us ought to exert ourselves to make good.... My Lectures are
happily over ten days ago; with "success" enough, as it is
called; the only _valuable_ part of which is some L200, gained
with great pain, but also with great brevity:--economical respite
for another solar year! The people were boundlessly tolerant;
my agitation beforehand was less this year, my remorse afterwards
proportionally greater. There was but one moderately good
Lecture, the last,--on Sausculottism, to an audience mostly Tory,
and rustling with the beautifulest quality silks! Two things I
find: first that _I ought to have had a horse;_ I had only
three incidental rides or gallops, hired rides; my horse
_Yankee_ is never yet purchased, but it shall be, for I cannot
live, except in great pain, without a horse. It was sweet beyond
measure to escape out of the dustwhirlpool here, and _fly,_ in
solitude, through the ocean of verdure and splendor, as far as
Harrow and back again; and one's nerves were _clear_ next day,
and words lying in one like water in a well. But the _second_
thing I found was, that extempore speaking, especially in the way
of Lecture, is an _art_ or craft, and requires an apprenticeship,
which I have never served. Repeatedly it has come into my head
that I should go to America, this very Fall, and belecture you
from North to South till I learn it! Such a thing does lie in
the bottom-scenes, should hard come to hard; and looks pleasant
enough.--On the whole, I say sometimes, I must either begin a
Book, or do it. Books are the lasting thing; Lectures are like
corn ground into flour; there are loaves for today, but no wheat
harvests for next year. Rudiments of a new Book (thank Heaven!)
do sometimes disclose themselves in me. _Festina lente._ It
ought to be better than the _French Revolution;_ I mean better
written. The greater part of that Book, as I read proof-sheets
of it in these weeks, does nothing but _disgust_ me. And yet it
was, as nearly as was good, the utmost that lay in me. I should
not like to be nearer killed with any other Book!--Books too are
a triviality. Life alone is great; with its infinite spaces,
its everla