"April 10.

"I do not know that I am happiest when alone; but this I am sure of,
that I never am long in the society even of _her_ I love, (God knows too
well, and the devil probably too,) without a yearning for the company of
my lamp and my utterly confused and tumbled-over library.[5] Even in the
day, I send away my carriage oftener than I use or abuse it. _Per
esempio_,--I have not stirred out of these rooms for these four days
past: but I have sparred for exercise (windows open) with Jackson an
hour daily, to attenuate and keep up the ethereal part of me. The more
violent the fatigue, the better my spirits for the rest of the day; and
then, my evenings have that calm nothingness of languor, which I most
delight in. To-day I have boxed one hour--written an ode to Napoleon
Buonaparte--copied it--eaten six biscuits--drunk four bottles of soda
water--redde away the rest of my time--besides giving poor * * a world
of advice about this mistress of his, who is plaguing him into a
phthisic and intolerable tediousness. I am a pretty fellow truly to
lecture about 'the sect.' No matter, my counsels are all thrown away.

[Footnote 5: "As much company," says Pope, "as I have kept, and as much
as I love it, I love reading better, and would rather be employed in
reading than in the most agreeable conversation."]


"April 19. 1814.

"There is ice at both poles, north and south--all extremes are the
same--misery belongs to the highest and the lowest only,--to the emperor
and the beggar, when unsixpenced and unthroned. There is, to be sure, a