_--I often say to myself, "Were not _here_ the real
priests and virtuous martyrs of that loud-babbling rotten
generation!" And so it goes on; when to end, or in what to end,
God knows.
Adieu, dear Emerson. A blockhead (by mistake) has been let in,
and has consumed all my time. Good be ever with you and yours.
--T. Carlyle
CLI. Emerson to Carlyle
Concord, 19 April, 1853
My Dear Friend,--As I find I never write a letter except at the
dunning of the Penny Post,--which is the pest of the century,--I
have thought lately of crossing to England to excuse to you my
negligence of your injunction, which so flattered me by its
affectionateness a year ago. I was to write once a month. My
own disobedience is wonderful, and explains to me all the sins of
omission of the whole world. The levity with which we can let
fall into disuse such a sacrament as the exchange of greeting at
short periods, is a kind of magnanimity, and should be an
astonishing argument of the "Immortality"; and I wonder how it
has escaped the notice of philosophers.
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