February, 1857
. . . Health is the first object,” as the worthy Doctor
used to say, so I take naps and gymnasium and read the fascinating Dr. Kane.
I do believe Robinson Crusoe will have to give place
hereafter, and that boys will keep some small edition of Dr. Kane instead of
Baron Trench in their school desks. I seldom read of anything which I do not
fancy I could have done myself, such is the weakness of our common nature; but
here I confess myself distanced, even in fancy.
On the other hand, what a dull and unprofitable book is the “Letters
of Daniel Webster”; no genius or power in it, or charm of any kind except
the letters to his farmers, which are quite delightful. Perhaps his letters
about and to his children, especially to the star-eyed Julia, show more
domestic feeling than I supposed; there is one quite beautiful burst of
fatherly pride where he describes her to somebody as being “beautiful as Juno.”
But he shows beyond all question that shallowness of knowledge which Theodore
Parker attributed to him, and everything in the shape of thought is amazingly
commonplace. . . .
Mary . . . has been reflecting to-day that there's no
telling what might have been; for instance, she might have been the wife
of Dr. Kane; and what would he have done with her in the Arctic regions?
That's the present anxiety.
* * * * * * * * * *
I am giving Sunday evening lectures on the “Seven Deadly
Sins,” or, as Mary irreverently terms them, “the Deadlies.” The congregations
are crowded as much as ever, though half the original ones are gone West.
SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters
and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 90-1
