"At my club, I suppose I behave very ill in securing always, if I can, a place by a valued friend, and, though I suppose (though I have never heard it) that I offend by this selection, sometimes too visible, my reason is, that I, who see in ordinary, rarely, select society, must make the best use of this opportunity, having, at the same time, the feeling that
"'I could be happy with either,Were the other dear charmer away.'"
The mortification that Mr. Emerson felt, and the annoyance which he believed his increasing loss of memory for words occasioned his friends, led to infrequent attendance as he grew older. But the club celebrated his return from Europe and Egypt, to which countries his friends had sent him for his health after the burning of his house. Mr. Richard H. Dana wrote of this occasion:1 1.1—
"1873 [May 31, Saturday]. Our club dined to-day,—the largest number we ever sat down, partly as the last of the season to which many come, but chiefly to welcome Emerson, on his return from Europe and Egypt. … It was really rather a brilliant gathering. … Emerson looks years younger for his European tour, and is in good spirits. Even his hair has come back, which had nearly left his head last summer."
This lecture "Clubs" seems to have first been delivered in Boston as the third in a course at Freeman Place Chapel in the spring of 1859, but before its publication, like most of the later lectures, it underwent great modifications. A portion of the essay occurred in the lecture "Table-Talk," given in December, 1864, as one of the Parker Fraternity week-day course.
