eral society they shall not eternally have things their own way.
Somebody ought to have the courage to enlighten them even at their own
tables, and in the protecting presence of their admiring wives and
daughters.

LETTER VI.

TO A FRIEND WHO KINDLY WARNED THE AUTHOR OF THE BAD EFFECTS OF SOLITUDE.

_Vae solis_--Society and solitude alike necessary--The use of each--In
solitude we know ourselves--Montaigne as a book-buyer--Compensations
of solitude--Description of one who loved and sought it--How men are
driven into solitude--Cultivated people in the provinces--Use of
solitude as a protection for rare and delicate natures--Shelley's
dislike to general society--Wordsworth and Turner--Sir Isaac Newton's
repugnance to society--Auguste Comte--His systematic isolation and
unshakable firmness of purpose--Milton and Bunyan--The solitude which
is really injurious--Painters and authors--An ideal division of life.

You cry to me _Vae solis!_ and the cry seems not the less loud and
stirring that it comes in the folds of a letter. Just at first it quite
startled and alarmed me, and made me strangely dissatisfied with my life
and work; but farther reflection has been gradually reconciling me ever
since, and now I feel cheerful again, and in a humor to answer you.

_Woe unto him that is alone!_ This has been often said, but the studious
recluse may answer, _Woe unto him that is never alone and cannot bear to
be alone!_

We need society, and we need solitude also, as we need summer and
winter, day and night, exercise and rest. I thank heaven for a thousand
pleasant and profitable conversations with acquaintances and friends; I
thank heaven also, and not less gratefully, for thousands of sweet hours
that have passed in solitary thought or labor, under the silent stars.

Society is necessary to give us our share and place in the collective
life of humanity, but solitude is necessary to the maintenance of the
individual life. Society is to the individual what travel and commerce
are to a nation; whilst solitude represents the home life of the nation,
during which it develops its especial originality and genius.

The life of the perfect hermit, and that of those persons who feel
themselves nothing individually, and have no existence but what they
receive from others, are alike imperfect lives. The perfect life is like
that of a ship of war which has its own place in the fleet and can share
in its strength and d