[Manchester—Tuesday, 16 July 1872]
Tuesday. Fog again. Last night Jamie brought an address by Emerson at Amherst to be in the newspapers.
It is noble. There is no other man of our time or perhaps of any time who could do & say what this man does and says. I prize my life afresh as running parallel with his existence in the world.
I prize too every moment of this solitude here as being time justly my own. I am so unaccustomed to this gift that I hardly use it to the fullest advantage. But I read several hours every day endeavoring to make up for the time given away in town and to fit myself to hold the position in which I am placed. Compared with the knowledge of great men the knowledge of women is usually as nought. In order to do good work with the brain, the brain must be instructed and it is the first duty of American women to seize every opportunity for bringing to their aid whatever help knowledge may give. But knowledge can never give Wisdom, or humility, or true greatness (knowledge in itself), it is simply one of the steps by which all men rise who rise at all. By the labor of the brain in assimilating what is proper to our own mental digestion we become strong to perform our especial work for humanity.
