His unwillingness to listen
to music, is rather to be attributed to the old quaker, puritanical
notion that all sensuous enjoyment is sinful, than to the well known
indifference of poets, for that sister art to which they owe so much. He
once went so far as to take an interest in some musical glasses, and
seemed to be pleased with the simple tunes that were played on them; but
pianos and violins he had no liking for.
He enjoyed looking at portraits of distinguished men, but did not
approve of religious pictures. Bayard Taylor presented him with a copy
of his translation of "Faust," and he read it, for the sake of old
acquaintance, but he did not like it and wondered especially what
explanation "Goethe's apologists could make for the strange, and
extraordinary characters in the second part." When some one asked him
why he did not make a trip to Europe he said: "Travelling does not seem
to agree with me; but beside that, I do not think I should find pleasure
in it. Their great cathedrals which people go to see, would not be of
any account to me; and I am afraid I should not enjoy the works of art.
I should like to see Switzerland; but there are also fine mountains over
there"--pointing to New Hampshire.
His prohibitory friends alleged that he was a good deal disturbed by the
five kinds of wine provided for the seventieth birth-day dinner, with
which his Boston publishers honored him.
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