England. I could wish our country a better comprehension of its
felicity. But government has come to be a trade, and is managed
solely on commercial principles. A man plunges into politics to
make his fortune, and only cares that the world should last his
day. We have had in different parts of the country mobs and
moblike legislation, and even moblike judicature, which have
betrayed an almost godless state of society; so that I begin to
think even here it behoves every man to quit his dependency on
society as much as he can, as he would learn to go without
crutches that will be soon plucked away from him, and settle with
himself the principles he can stand upon, happen what may. There
is reading, and public lecturing too, in this country, that I
could recommend as medicine to any gentleman who finds the love
of life too strong in him.

If virtue and friendship have not yet become fables, do believe
we keep your face for the living type. I was very glad to hear
of the brother you describe, for I have one too, and know what it
is to have presence in two places. Charles Chauncy Emerson is a
lawyer now settled in this town, and, as I believe, no better
Lord Hamlet was ever. He is our Doctor on all questions of
taste, manners, or action. And one of the pure pleasures I
promise myself in the months to come is to make you two gentlemen
know each other.




X. Emerson to Carlyle