EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 247 
March 28, 1842. How often must one feel, 
as he looks back on his past life, that he has 
gained a talent, but lost a character. My life 
has got down into my fingers. My inspiration 
at length is only so much breath as I can 
breathe. Society affects to estimate men by 
their talents, but really feels and knows them 
by their character. What a man does, compared 
with what he is, is but a small part. To re¬ 
quire that our friend possess a certain skill is 
not to be satisfied till he is something less than 
our friend. Friendship should be a great prom¬ 
ise, a perennial spring-time. I can conceive 
how the life of the gods may be dull and tame, 
if it is not disappointed and insatiate. One may 
well feel chagrined when he finds he can do 
nearly all he can conceive. How poor is the 
life of the best and wisest; the petty side will 
appear at last. Understand once how the best 
in society live, with what routine, with what 
tedium and insipidity, with what grimness and 
defiance, with what chuckling over an exaggera¬ 
tion of the sunshine ! I am astonished, I must 
confess, that man looks so respectable in nature, 
that, considering the littlenesses Socrates must 
descend to in the twenty-four hours, he yet 
wears a serene countenance and even adorns 
nature. 
March 28, 1852. 10J P. M. The geese have 
