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thankful for, not only for these opportunities for communion with nature’s beauty, but for the power with which it speaks to my heart, for the peace which posseth all understanding which these tranquil scenes convey to me. Mind own little individuality is fused into a deeper and wider sea, my own weaknesses and littlenesses do not harass and be-little me. [words crossed out]! How might not my lot have been cast? — In old cruel time, when men were slain & tortured by fellow men; — when serf-dom and helotage were wide and rife; — (alas that they should be existant now, at all!) Or again to have lived ere the divine poet-spirit of [William] Shakspere, and those akin to him in their degree had subtilized, created and won forth the inner essence of enjoyment from all things. [words crossed out] / And if, after all, I do think that, as I close this book, and lay head on pillow, that I might have a dear face to turn to — Well that’s enough, for to night.

16. Monday. To the Castle, and there, undisturbed all the live-long day; making great progress with the head-gear. Unclouded sunshine and quiet without; and when the tree-shadows told that the sun sate high in his meridian tower I unpacked little basket, and had dinner. Return at sun-set. Reading a little and drawing much, on wood, in the evening. [William] Hazlitt on Shakspere. I do not think he does Shakspere justice in his essay on Coriolanus. He assumes that the poet justifies him in his contempt for the “trades of Rome,” and is altogether on the side of Aristocracy. I find it not so. Both sides, Aristocracy & Democracy are very fairly stated, and if the people are not spurred, it is that Shakspere would give us the sure result of demagoguism. Neither is Coriolanus spared; — his willfulness & obstinacy are perceptible enough, spite of the strong sympathy we have