May 22, 1837

People are stung by a pregnant saying and will continue to repeat it without seeing its meaning. I said “If you sleep, you show character” – and the young girls asked what it could mean. I will tell you. You think that because you have spoken nothing when others spoke and have given no opinion upon the times, upon Wilhelm Meister, upon Abolition, upon Harvard College, that your verdict is still expected with curiosity as a reserved wisdom. Far otherwise; it is known that you have no opinion: You are measured by your silence & found wanting. You have no oracle to utter, & your fellowmen have learned that you cannot help them; for oracles speak. Doth not wisdom cry & understanding put forth her voice?

November 24, 1837

When a zealot comes to me & represents the importance of this Temperance Reform my hands drop – I have no excuse – I honor him with shame at my own inaction.

Then a friend of the slave shows me the horrors of Southern slavery – I cry guilty guilty! Then a philanthropist tells me the shameful neglect of the Schools by the Citizens. I feel guilty again.

Then I hear of Byron or Milton who drank soda water & ate a crust whilst others fed fat & I take the confessional anew.