"I have a letter of Emerson's (and you can take a copy of it if you like) which cleared up an anecdote that was told of him at the time. It was said that on one of his ocean trips he committed 'Alaric' or some other long poem to memory, in order to while away a few otherwise unprofitable days. It proved to be 'Lycidas,' and I never heard of any one else who has committed 'Lycidas' to memory on an ocean trip for pastime. Who else but Emerson would have thought of it?" CONCORD, _January 26_. MY DEAR HALE:--I know by much experience of my own what it is to have Everett on the brain, and you, who have it in the blood, may easily believe that it could only be "Alaric" that I was crooning at sea. But it was not that, but Milton's "Lycidas," which I told of in a lecture on Memory, to which I must think you refer; though nothing of it was ever printed or reported that I know, and it must have been read (_i.e._, the lecture) when you were very young. I ought to be proud that the anecdote could reach you, but the mystery of the memory interested me much. I wrote you yesterday about Stirling's pamphlet, which I hope will come speedily to you. I do not recall the title, but it was, perhaps, "Remarks on Mr. Huxley's Protoplasm." Yours, R. W. EMERSON. "Here's another story of Emerson," continued my host, with a twinkle, "that reminds me of the story of the man who said he couldn't make a speech like Henry Clay, but he had once held the statesman's hat when Clay was speaking. When Mr. Emerson delivered his second Phi Beta address, the desk had been removed from the pulpit of the church, so that he had at the beginning to kneel uncomfortably to read his manuscript. I went back in the vestry and found the desk, and, in the first pause in Emerson's address, placed it before him. The audience of course applauded. When the oration was over, Lowell, who presided, congratulated Mr. Emerson on his success, and Emerson's first words were, 'Where's that saint, Edward Hale?'" [Illustration: SITTING-ROOM.] "Have you any special reminiscence of Hawthorne?" "Hardly any at all. Personally, Hawthorne was very reticent in society. My own recollections of him, when I first saw him, were that he hardly spoke a word to anybody. This little scrap of Hawthorne's, which you may use, if you care to, was sent to the 'Boston Miscellany,' a magazine that my brother edited, and to which all Young America at that time contributed. Lowell published his first stories and articles in the 'Miscellany,' after those in 'Harvardiana.'