cor West.
Camden
N. Jersey. April 1. Dear John,
I have look'd over the Emerson notes—read them all over once—am precluded from any thing more or giving any very deep or elaborate analysis of them, in connection with the Emerson question, (as my brain is in a state not allowing thought, argument or study)—but still I will give you my first impressions of your pages:
In their totality, they produce a not agreeable notion of being written by one who has been largely grown & ripened & gristled by Emerson, but has at last become dissatisfied & finnicky about him, & would pitch into him, but cannot—perhaps dare not—and so keeps running around in a sort of circle of praises & half praises, like a horse tied by a tether.
Your Notes also seem to me (to be plain) a good deal too diffuse, & too Emersony in themselves—I should select about one third of the MS. as first rate, (including the opening part)—My opinion is that you had perhaps better work it all over, & leave out at least half—
About the allusions to me, my off–hand thought is that my name might be brought in, in one or two places, as foil or suggestive comparison—but my name only, without any praises or comments, (only the silently inferred ones)—to my friends, & circle, who know the relations & history between me & Emerson, the mere mention of the name itself, in that way, will be significant—(& it might give pungency to the sentence)—
I have had a bad time the last two weeks—head & belly—& I almost wonder I stand it so well—for I do stand it—I go out most every day, a little—John Swinton, from N. Y. has been to see me—
Love to you & 'Sula— WW