Oct. 20.
— To-night, after leaving the Hospital, at 10 o'cl'k, (I had been on self-imposed
duty some five hours, pretty closely confined,) I wander'd a long time around Washington. The
night was sweet, very clear, sufficiently cool, a voluptuous half-moon slightly golden, the space
near it of a transparent tinge. I walk'd up Pennsylvania Avenue, and then to Seventh street, and a
long while round the Patent Office. Somehow it look'd rebukefully strong, majestic, there in the
delicate moonlight. The sky, the planets, the constellations all so bright, so calm, so expressively
silent. so soothing, after those Hospital scenes. I wander'd to and fro till the moist moon set, long
after midnight.
