EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 9 
the rushing together of air to fill a vacuum 
which makes a noise. The great events to 
which all things consent, and for which they 
have prepared the way, produce no explosion, 
for they are gradual, and create no vacuum 
which requires to be filled. As a birth takes 
place in silence, and is whispered about the 
neighborhood, but an assassination, which, is at 
war with the constitution of things, creates a 
tumult immediately. 
February 26, 1841. My prickles or smooth¬ 
ness are as much a quality of your hand as of 
myself. I cannot tell you what I am more than 
a ray of the summer’s sun. What I am, I am, 
and say not. Being is the great explainer. In 
the attempt to explain, shall I plane away all 
the spines till it is no thistle, but a cornstalk. 
If my world is not sufficient without thee, my 
friend, I will wait till it is, and then call thee. 
You shall come to a palace, not to an alms¬ 
house. To be great we do as if we would be 
tall merely, longer than we are bro.ad, stretch 
ourselves and stand on tiptoe. But greatness 
is well-proportioned, unstrained, and stands on 
the soles of the feet. 
In composition I miss the hue of the mind, 
as if we could be satisfied with the dews of the 
morning and evening without their colors, or 
the heavens without their azure. This good 
