[
19]
This letter was promptly answered, and followed by another, and still another, both of which show a growing friendship, a playful fancy, and a clearing prospect.
On May 24th he wrote to
Barrett:
... Now for myself.
I am reviewing my Latin and Greek together daily, or rather nightly, which is the only sort of instruction I have had since your absence began.
Mr. Hosmer wrote to Professor Felton, of Cambridge, who replied that I need have no fears on the score of admission, as, under the circumstances, I might be allowed to make up deficiencies while going on with the class.
On January 16, 1840, after he had been at
Cambridge nearly a half-year,
Dana wrote to
Dr. Flint:
... For my part, I am in the focus of what Professor Felton calls “supersublimated transcendentalism,” and to tell the truth, I take to it rather kindly though I stumble sadly at some notions.
But there is certainly a movement going on in philosophy which must produce a revolution in politics, morals, and religion, sooner or later.
The tendency of the age is spiritual, and though the immediate reaction of the mind may be somewhat ultra, it is cheering to know that a genuine earnest action of some sort is in progress.
Even old Harvard is feeling it. Locke is already laid aside, or the same thing as laid aside.
Paley is about to suffer the same fate, and what is better perhaps than the inculcation of any positive doctrine, a course of study in the History of Philosophy is to be introduced and carried on with the study of Locke and Cousin, Paley and Jouffroy.
Though it may be vain to expect a university as far advanced as the age, still I hope to see old Harvard not very far behind.
I attend Mr. Emerson's lectures only; they are without dispute very fine, though perhaps they might be better without some of his peculiarities.
Their great merit appears to me to be their suggestive character; they make me think.
