July 23. 1827
William III — Berkeley — Spinosa — Genius — Envy — Love
William the Third was a greater and much honester man than any of his ministers. I believe every one of them, except Shrewsbury, has now been detected in correspondence with James.
Berkeley can only be confuted, or answered, by one sentence. So it is with Spinosa. His premiss granted, the deduction is a chain of adamant.
Genius may co-exist with wildness, idleness, folly, even with crime; but not long, believe me, with selfishness, and the indulgence of an envious disposition. Envy is *[Greek: kakistos kai dikaiotatos theos], as I once saw it expressed somewhere in a page of Stobaeus: it dwarfs and withers its worshippers.
The man’s desire is for the woman; but the woman’s desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man.1
Notes
1 “A woman’s friendship,” I find written by Mr. C. on a page dyed red with an imprisoned rose-leaf, “a woman’s friendship borders more closely on love than man’s. Men affect each other in the reflection of noble or friendly acts; whilst women ask fewer proofs, and more signs and expressions of attachment.”—ED.