[Boston—Tuesday, 3 January 1871]

Tuesday night. Dined at home with Mr & Mrs Darrah, Judge Russell & his wife. The two latter people of distinguished intellect. She has the savage element largely developed—a kind of freedom which she will never lose—a true child of Father Taylor and Mother Nature.

I am reading a sketch of Mme Desbordes-Valmore by Ste-Beuve. One of its most striking and valuable points is the glimpse wh. is given of her poetry and the beautiful manner in wh. it is endowed. She says “Ne nous laissons pas abattre pourtant, il faut moins pour se résignir à l’indigence quand on sent avec passion la rue du soleil, des arbres, de la douce lumière, et la croyance profonde de revoir les aimés que l’on pleure.--

Is not this the ideal character! Could the[r]e be anything more exquisite in this dark world?

Speaking of the hope of getting money from her literary work she repeats the sad story which is forever to be retold “En ce moment, je n’obtiendrais pas vingt francs d’un volume: la musique, la politique, le commerce, l’effroyable misère et l’effroyable loge absorbent tout”--


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