The effect of morning sunshine on the wet grass, on sloping
and swelling land, between the spectator and the sun at some distance, as
across a lawn. It diffused a dim brilliancy over the whole surface of
the field. The mists, slow-rising farther off, part resting on the
earth, the remainder of the column already ascending so high that you
doubt whether to call it a fog or a cloud.
Friday, July 28th.--Saw my classmate and formerly intimate friend,
------, for the first time since we graduated. He has met with good
success in life, in spite of circumstance, having struggled upward
against bitter opposition, by the force of his own abilities, to be a
member of Congress, after having been for some time the leader of his
party in the State Legislature. We met like old friends, and conversed
almost as freely as we used to do in college days, twelve years ago and
more. He is a singular person, shrewd, crafty, insinuating, with
wonderful tact, seizing on each man by his manageable point, and using
him for his own purpose, often without the man's suspecting that he is
made a tool of; and yet, artificial as his character would seem to be,
his conversation, at least to myself, was full of natural feeling, the
expression of which can hardly be mistaken, and his revelations with
regard to himself had really a great deal of frankness.
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