He carried a volume of poems from
my friend and nearest neighbor, W. Ellery Channing, whereof give
me, I pray you, the best opinion you can. I am determined he
shall be a poet, and you must find him such.* I have too many
things to tell you to begin at the end of this sheet, which after
all this waiting I have been compelled to scribble in a corner,
with company waiting for me. Send me instant word of yourself
if you love me, and of those whom you love, and so God keep you
and yours.
--R. Waldo Emerson
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* In the second number of the _Dial,_ in October, 1840, Emerson
had published, under the title of "New Poetry," an article warmly
commending Mr. Channing's then unpublished poems.
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LXXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson
Chelsea, London, 31 October, 1843
My Dear Emerson,--It is a long weary time since I have had the
satisfaction of the smallest dialogue with you. The blame is all
my own; the reasons would be difficult to give,--alas, they are
properly no-reasons, children not of _Something,_ but of mere
Idleness, Confusion, Inaction, Inarticulation, of _Nothing_ in
short! Let us leave them there, and profit by the hour which
yet is.
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