I
reflect many times that the wealth of the Indies, the fame of ten
Shakespeares or ten Mahomets, would at bottom do me no good at
all. Let us leave these poor slaves of the Ingot and slaves
of the Lamp to their own courses,--within a _certain_ extent
of halter!

What you say of Alcott seems to me altogether just. He is a man
who has got into the Highest intellectual region,--if that be the
Highest (though in that too there are many stages) wherein a man
can believe and discern for himself, without need of help from
any other, and even in opposition to all others: but I consider
him entirely unlikely to accomplish anything considerable, except
some kind of crabbed, semi-perverse, though still manful
existence of his own; which indeed is no despicable thing.
His "more than prophetic egoism,"--alas, yes! It is of such
material that Thebaid Eremites, Sect-founders, and all manner of
cross-grained fanatical monstrosities have fashioned themselves,
--in very _high,_ and in the highest regions, for that matter.
Sect-founders withal are a class I do not like. No truly great
man, from Jesus Christ downwards, as I often say, ever founded a
Sect,--I mean wilfully intended founding one. What a view must a
man have of this Universe, who thinks "_he_ can swallow it all,"
who is not doubly and trebly happy that he can keep it from
swallowing him! On the whole, I sometimes hope we have now done
with Fanatics and Agonistic Posture-makers in this poor world:
it will be an immense improvement on the Past; and the "New
Ideas," as Alcott calls them, will prosper greatly the better on
that account! The old gloomy Gothic Cathedrals were good; but
the great blue Dome that hangs over all is better than any
Cologne one.--On the whole, do not tell the good Alcott a word of
all this; but let him love me as he can, and live on vegetables
in peace; as I, living _partly_ on vegetables, will continue to
love him!

The best thing Alcott did while he staid among us was to
circulate some copies of your _Man the Reformer._* I did not get
a copy; I applied for one, so soon as I knew the right fountain;
but Alcott, I think, was already gone. And now mark,--for this I
think is a novelty, if you do not already know it: Certain
Radicals have reprinted your Essay in Lancashire, and it is
freely circulating there, and here, as a cheap pamphlet, with
excellent acceptance so far as I discern. Various Newspaper
reviews of it have come ath