country who oppose an examination
of these subjects,--such as is animated by the hope of prevention.
Educated in an age of gross materialism, Fourier is tainted by its
faults; in attempts to reorganize society, he commits the error of
making soul the result of health of body, instead of body the clothing
of soul; but his heart was that of a genuine lover of his kind, of a
philanthropist in the sense of Jesus; his views are large and noble;
his life was one of devout study on these subjects, and I should pity
the person who, after the briefest sojourn in Manchester and Lyons,
the most superficial acquaintance with the population of London and
Paris, could seek to hinder a study of his thoughts, or be wanting in
reverence for his purposes.

ROUSSEAU.

To the actually so-called Chamber of Deputies, I was indebted for a
sight of the manuscripts of Rousseau treasured in their library. I saw
them and touched them,--those manuscripts just as he has celebrated
them, written on the fine white paper, tied with ribbon. Yellow and
faded age has made them, yet at their touch I seemed to feel the fire
of youth, immortally glowing, more and more expansive, with which his
soul has pervaded this century. He was the precursor of all we most
prize. True, his blood was mixed with madness, and the course of his
actual life made some _detours_ through villanous places; but his
spirit was intimate with the fundamental truths of human nature, and
fraught with prophecy. There is none who has given birth to more life
for this age; his gifts are yet untold; they are too present with us;
but he who thinks really must often think with Rousseau, and learn him
ever more and more. Such is the method of genius,--to ripen fruit for
the crowd by those rays of whose heat they complain.

TO R.W.E.

_Naples, March_ 15, 1847.--Mickiewicz, the Polish poet, first
introduced the Essays to acquaintance in Paris. I did not meet him
anywhere, and, as I heard a great deal of him which charmed me, I sent
him your poems, and asked him to come and see me. He came, and I
found in him the man I had long wished to see, with the intellect and
passions in due proportion for a full and healthy human being, with a
soul constantly inspiring. Unhappily, it was a very short time before
I came away. How much time had I wasted on others which I might have
given to this real and important relation.

After hearing music from Chopin and Neukomm, I quitted Pari