5.20 P.M. Having "eaten a good dinner," W. said he felt well. We talked a little while together.
He described Boyle O'Reilly—"a really handsome man—not large, but giving evidence of attention to athletic things: handsome, with that Irish-Spanish combination of character which seems to establish the origin of Irish nationality. . . . Yes, I can think what Hawthorne looked like, though I never saw him—probably a man resembling Aleck Cattell here in our own place—but more than that, too." But "Thoreau, though pleasing, was too angular—did not suggest any athletic observance."—"Boyle O'Reilly is a man of warmest spirit, good to meet, good to know, good to have for friend. He has been faithful to us." Much of this called out by O'Reilly's item in the Pilot calling W. so far America's greatest poet.
W. again expressed doubt if Ingersoll's speech could be got. "The Inquirer report, bad as it is, is the best I know, and ablest, shows us what we lost in not getting the speech at the time." Said he had not yet written anything on the O'Connor preface.
Would go out later on, when it had got cooler.