PLATO'S LETTERS 213 PLATO 217 PLATO'S METHOD 222 SOCRATES 234 BERKELEY 236 BOEHME 237 MR. WALTON'S LETTER 240 CRABBE ROBINSON'S DIARY 245 COLERIDGE 246 SELDEN'S TABLE-TALK 249 WOMAN 253 SEPTEMBER. WALDEN POND 259 CHANNING'S "WALDEN" 259 THE IDEAL CHURCH 265 COLLYER 269 BEECHER 269 IDEALS 270 HEYWOOD'S "SEARCH AFTER GOD" 273 [Illustration] APRIL. 1869. "Now fades the last long streak of snow." --_Tennyson._ [Illustration] CONCORD DAYS. DIARIES. THURSDAY, 1. Come again into my study, having sat some time for greater comfort in the sunnier east room by an open fire, as needful in our climate, almost, as in that of changeable England. Busy days these last, with a little something to show for them. After all, I am here most at home, and myself surrounded by friendly pictures and books, free to follow the mood of the moment,--read, write, recreate. I wish more came of it all. Here are these voluminous diaries, showy seen from without, with far too little of life transcribed within. Was it the accident of being shown, when a boy, in the old oaken cabinet, my mother's little journal, that set me out in this chase of myself, continued almost uninterruptedly, and now fixed by habit as a part of the day, like the rising and setting of the sun? Yet it has educated me into whatever skill I possess with the pen, I know not to how much besides; has made me emulous of attaining the art of portraying my thoughts, occupations, surroundings, friendships; and could I succeed in sketching to the life a single day's doings, should esteem myself as having accomplished the chiefest feat in literature. Yet the nobler the life and the busier, the less, perhaps, gets written, and that which is, the less rewards perusal. "Life's the true poem could it be writ, Yet who can live at once and utter it." All is in the flowing moments. But who shall arrest these and fix the features of the passing person behind the pageantry, and write the diary of one's existence? MY HOUSE. SATURDAY, 3. My neighbors flatter me in telling me that I have one of the best placed and most picturesque houses in our town. I know very well the secret of what they praise. 'Tis simply adapting the color and repairs to the architecture, and holding these in keeping with the spot.