[Boston—Thursday, 14 November 1867]
Nov. 14th Winter has set in—night before last Una Hawthorne, who has been passing 3 or 4 days here and I went to see Ristori in Marie Antoinette. It was a bit of realism too terrible for endurance. I was seized with a convulsive weeping at the horrible suffering of the unhappy family of Louis when the mob go to Versailles and demand their appearance on the balcony. The horrid roar outside, the pallor & grief within, the beauty & utter misery, were all rendered with such faithfulness to life that it was more than I could bear, we came out before the play was ended & drove home in a grand whirling snow-storm.
This morning there was a meeting of “radicals” at Dr Bartols, called together in part for the benefit of Lord & Lady Amberley. Mr Weiss read a paper on Naturalism or Science as the foundation of all knowledge. The Divine Method as seen in all things—a protest against the growing super-naturalism of our time. He was combated and discussed by Mr Alcott, Lucretia Mott, Mr Higginson, Samuel Longfellow, Mr Bartol, Mr Emerson, Dr Hedge. Lucretia Mott followed Mr Weiss’s well written paper. She could not follow very ably, being old and somewhat uninstructed. Mr Alcott proceeded but mistily, Mr Emerson bravely but without much point.
