Dear Sir，
I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of. Leaves of Grass. I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it， as great power makes us happy. It meets the demand I am always making of what seems the sterile and stingy Nature， as if too much handiwork or too much lymph in the temperament were making our Western wits fat and mean. I give you joy of your free and brave thought. I have great joy in it. I find incomparable things said incomparably well， as they must be. I find the courage of treatment， which so delights us， and which large perception only can inspire.
I greet you at the beginning of a great career， which must yet have had a long foreground somewhere， for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion， but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. It has the best merits， namely， of fortifying and encouraging. I did not know until I， last night， saw the book advertised in a newspaper， that I could trust the name as real and available for a post office.
I wish to see my benefactor， and have felt much like striking my tasks， and visiting New York to pay you my respects.
R.W. Emerson
Concord
Massachusetts
21 July 1855
親愛的先生：
對於卓越超群的《草葉集》，我對它的價值並非視而不見。我認為它是美國迄今為止所出版的最傑出最具才智的作品。我在讀它的時候，心情十分愉快，偉大的力量總會讓我們感到愉快。我一直都認為，我們似乎處於貧瘠枯竭的狀態，似乎太多的精雕細琢，或者過度的迂緩氣質正使我們西方的智慧變得遲鈍而平庸，而《草葉集》正是我們所需要的。我很高興您擁有這樣自由而勇敢的思想，我感到十分興奮。我發現，很多事物都應該表現出它本身擁有的無可匹敵的美，我也看到其中那種大膽的令我們愉悅的記述，也許隻有具有深刻理解力的人才能夠把它挖掘出來。