ny terms, who want to learn something I
can teach them,--then we will, most readily, as Burns says,
"loose our tinkler jaw"; but not I think till then; were the
Institution even Imperial.

America has faded considerably into the background of late:
indeed, to say truth, whenever I think of myself in America, it
is as in the Backwoods, with a rifle in my hand, God's sky over
my head, and this accursed Lazar-house of quacks and blockheads,
'and sin and misery (now near a head) lying all behind me
forevermore. A thing, you see, which is and can be at bottom but
a daydream! To rest through the summer: that is my only fixed
wisdom; a resolution taken; only the place where uncertain.--
What a pity this poor sheet is done! I had innumerable things to
tell you about people whom I have seen, about books,--Miss
Harriet Martineau, Mrs. Butler, Southey, Influenza, Parliament,
Literature and the Life of Man,--the whole of which must lie over
till next time. Write to me; do not forget me. My Wife, who is
sitting by me, in very poor health (this long while), sends
"kindest remembrances," "compliments" she expressly does not
send. Good be with you always, my dear Friend!

--T. Carlyle

We send our felicitation to the Mother and little Boy; which
latter you had better tell us the name of.

XV. Emerson to Carlyle

Concord, Mass., 31 March, 1837

My Dear Friend,--Last night, I said I would write to you
forthwith. This morning I received your letter of February 13th,
and _with it_ the _Diamond Necklace,_ the _Mirabeau,_ and the
olive leaf of a proof-sheet. I write out the sum of my debt as
the best acknowledgment I can make. I had already received,
about New-Year's-Day, the preceding letter. It came in the midst
of my washbowl-storm of a course of Lectures on the Philosophy of
History. For all these gifts and pledges,--thanks. Over the
finished _History,_ joy and evergreen laurels. I embrace you
with all my heart. I solace myself with the noble nature God has
given you, and in you to me, and to all. I had read the _Diamond
Necklace_ three weeks ago at the Boston Athenaeum, and the
_Mirabeau_ I had just read when my copy came. But the proof-sheet
was virgin gold. The _Mirabeau_ I forebode is to establish your
kingdom in England. That is genuine thunder, which nobody that
wears ears can affect to mistake for the rumbling of cart-wheels.
I please myself with thinking that my