"How much talk there is about religion! Giles [Footnote: Rev. Henry
Giles.] I like the best, for he seems, like myself, to have no settled
views, and to be religious only in feeling. He says he has no piety, but
a great sense of infinity.

"Yesterday I had a Shaker visitor, and to-day a Catholic; and the more I
see and hear, the less do I care about church doctrines. The Catholic, a
priest, I have known as an Atheneum visitor for some time. He talked
to-day, on my asking him some questions, and talked better than I
expected. He is plainly full of intelligence, full of enthusiasm for his
religion, and, I suspect, full of bigotry. I do not believe he will die
a Catholic priest. A young man of his temperament must find it hard to
live without family ties, and I shall expect to hear, if I ever hear of
him again, that some good little Irish girl has made him forget his
vows.

"My visitors, in other respects, have been of the average sort. Four
women have been delighted to make my acquaintance--three men have
thought themselves in the presence of a superior being; one offered me
twenty-five cents because I reached him the key of the museum. One woman
has opened a correspondence with me, and several have told me that they
knew friends of mine; two have spoken of me in small letters to small
newspapers; one said he didn't see me, and one said he did! I have
become hardened to all; neither compliment nor quarter-dollar rouses any
emotion. My fit of humility, which has troubled me all summer, is
shaken, however, by the first cool breeze of autumn and the first walk
taken without perspiration.

"Sept. 22, 1854. On the evening of the 18th, while 'sweeping,' there