journal of 1867, after saying that in proportion to your reality of life and perception will be your difficulty of finding yourself expressed in others' words or deeds, he interrupts himself,—"and yet—and yet—when the visions of my books come over me as I sit writing, when the remembrance of some poet comes, I accept it with pure joy, and quit my thinking as sad lumbering work; and hasten to my little heaven, if it is then accessible, as angels might."
Page 189, note 1. Mr. Emerson begins this estimate of books in the "low tone" which he often commends, avoiding superstition concerning them, and this gives opportunity for ascension in the treatment of the theme. In a note-book called Literature, under the heading "Skeptical," he wrote: "We must not inquire too curiously into the absolute value of literature. Enough that it amuses and exercises us. At least it leaves us where we were. It names things, but does not add things." But in a lecture "Some Good Books" he decides the matter more cheerfully, and after "value of literature" the passage goes on thus,—"yet books are to us angels of entertainment, sympathy and provocation. These silent wise, these tractable prophets and singers, who now and then cast their moonlight illumination over solitude, weariness and fallen fortunes."
Page 190, note 1. Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535), a German scholar, alchemist and reputed magician, who wrote on The Uncertainty and Vanity of the Sciences, and on Occult Philosophy. His magic mirror, in which he showed to the Earl of Surrey his lady-love beyond the seas, is told of in song in Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel. In the same poem the "book of spells," borrowed from the grave at Melrose Abbey of the wizard Michael Scott, plays an important part. Michael
