rth about them. I was not impressed with any remarkable originality in
his views; but they were sensible and characteristic, and had grown in
the soil where we found them;... and he is certainly a man of
intellectual and moral substance, a sturdy fact, a reality, something to
be felt and touched, whose ideas seem to be dug out of his mind as he
digs potatoes, beets, carrots, and turnips out of the ground.

After leaving Mr. ----, we proceeded through wood paths to Walden Pond,
picking blackberries of enormous size along the way. The pond itself was
beautiful and refreshing to my soul, after such long and exclusive
familiarity with our tawny and sluggish river. It lies embosomed among
wooded hills,--it is not very extensive, but large enough for waves to
dance upon its surface, and to look like a piece of blue firmament,
earth-encircled. The shore has a narrow, pebbly strand, which it was
worth a day's journey to look at, for the sake of the contrast between
it and the weedy, oozy margin of the river. Farther within its depths,
you perceive a bottom of pure white sand, sparkling through the
transparent water, which, methought, was the very purest liquid in the
world. After Mr. Emerson left us, Hillard and I bathed in the pond, and
it does really seem as if my spirit, as well as corporeal person, were
refreshed by that bath. A good deal of mud and river slime had
accumulated on my soul; but these bright waters washed it all away.

We returned home in due season for dinner.... To my misfortune, however,
a box of Mediterranean wine proved to have undergone the acetous
fermentation; so that the splendor of the festival suffered some
diminution. Nevertheless, we ate our dinner with a good appetite, and
afterwards went universally to take our several siestas. Meantime there
came a shower, which so besprinkled the grass and shrubbery as to make
it rather wet for our after-tea ramble. The chief result of the walk was
the bringing home of an immense burden of the trailing clematis-vine,
now just in blossom, and with which all our flower-stands and vases are
this morning decorated. On our return we found Mr. and Mrs. S----, and
E. H----, who shortly took their leave, and we sat up late, telling
ghost-stories. This morning, at seven, our friends left us. We were both
pleased with the visit, and so I think were our guests.

* * * * *

_Monday, August 22nd._--I took a walk through the woods yesterday