Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/262

 238 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1852,

I send you the thoughts on Chastity and Sen suality with diffidence and shame, not knowing how far I speak to the condition of men gener ally, or how far I betray my peculiar defects. Pray enlighten me on this point if you can.

LOVE.

What the essential difference between man and woman is, that they should be thus attracted to one another, no one has satisfactorily an swered. Perhaps we must acknowledge the just ness of the distinction which assigns to man the sphere of wisdom, and to woman that of love, though neither belongs exclusively to either. Man is continually saying to woman, Why will you not be more wise ? Woman is continually saying to man, Why will you not be more lov ing ? It is not in their wills to be wise or to be loving ; but, unless each is both wise and loving, there can be neither wisdom nor love.

All transcendent goodness is one, though appreciated in different ways, or by different senses. In beauty we see it, in music we hear it, in fragrance we scent it, in the palatable the pure palate tastes it, and in rare health the whole body feels it. The variety is in the sur face or manifestation ; but the radical identity we fail to express. The lover sees in the glance of his beloved the same beauty that in the sun-