January 21. To Professor Royce’s lecture on Fichte and the German idealists who followed Kant. Very interesting. In the evening Mama talked about Papa. She spoke of her having for twenty years lived in thinking about thoughts; _i.e._ studying metaphysics and philosophy, on which she wrote many papers. She went one Sunday to the Parker Memorial and read a paper about the Causality of Things. When half through she realized that the audience did not understand her and moreover that it was her fault that they did not understand. Then came a period in which she determined to learn from experience, from thinking about people and life, and to think no longer about thoughts. Now she can amuse herself with philosophy, but it is not the pleasure to her that a thorough study of history is, or of the different religions of the world. She enjoys above all other reading the Greek classics, poetry, history and plays.--To a Russian dinner given by Count Zuboff at the Tremont House. Very amusing. All sorts of queer fishes and queer dishes. January 27th. A letter from Mr. Booth thanking me for mine. I had written telling how much we had enjoyed seeing him act during his Boston engagement. He writes: “Forgive an old man’s tardiness in thanking you for your charming note anent the plays I struggled through in Boston, it gratified me very, very much indeed, and I cordially thank you for it.” The handwriting not so firm as formerly, though the signature is perfect. Shylock was the best thing he did this time,--an old man’s part! February 7th. Fourth anniversary of our marriage. Supper, music, dancing, for a dozen of the original wedding guests,--only true lovers were invited. Mama said that every woman should be allowed to choose her own mate until she was thirty, every man till he was forty; after that the State should marry them. What a scrambling there would be in the twenty-ninth and the thirty-ninth years! Richard Mansfield had asked me to write a play for him founded on Chamisso’s “Man Without a Shadow.” I found time for this and to give a series of talks of arts and literature in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Newport during this year and the following. It was a time of great activity and consequent happiness.