Both Uses of
indulge
in
The Scarlet Letter
- Some authors, indeed, do far more than this, and indulge themselves in such confidential depths of revelation as could fittingly be addressed only and exclusively to the one heart and mind of perfect sympathy; as if the printed book, thrown at large on the wide world, were certain to find out the divided segment of the writer's own nature, and complete his circle of existence by bringing him into communion with it.†
Chpt Intr. *
- After my fellowship of toil and impracticable schemes with the dreamy brethren of Brook Farm; after living for three years within the subtle influence of an intellect like Emerson's; after those wild, free days on the Assabeth, indulging fantastic speculations, beside our fire of fallen boughs, with Ellery Channing; after talking with Thoreau about pine-trees and Indian relics in his hermitage at Walden; after growing fastidious by sympathy with the classic refinement of Hillard's…†
Chpt Intr.
Definition:
-
(indulge) to give into a desire or enjoy something -- especially in excess of what is thought good--such as a desire to eat too much cake, or be too lazy
or:
to allow or help someone to get their way or enjoy something -- especially something that (probably because of excess) is not considered to be good or proper