day could have given him. Admirably fitted to his tastes, it was no less
well adapted to his needs. It fostered in him all that was best in his
character, and it served to bring out his genius to its rounded
expression.

The two years which Curtis spent in Concord must have been of the greatest
value to him. His contact with Emerson was of itself of inestimable worth,
for it gave him that enthusiasm for ideas, that contact with a noble life
lived for the highest ends of spiritual development, which fostered in him
the enthusiasms which were so genuine a part of his life. Without Brook
Farm, Transcendentalism, and Emerson, it is quite safe to say that the
life of Curtis would have been less worthy of our admiration. The stay in
Concord was a time of seed-planting, and the harvest came in all that the
man was in later years. Without the enthusiasms then cherished the
independent in politics would have been less courageous. And these letters
may suggest anew one of the most important lessons of education, that
without enthusiasms no man can do any great or noble work in the world.
What will give to youth visions, ideals, and enthusiasms is worth all
other parts of culture, for out of these grow the noblest results of human
willing, thinking, and doing.




EARLY LETTERS TO JOHN S. DWIGHT


I

PROVIDENCE, _August 18, 1843._