my dear friend,—I received and appreciated, with a heart in the right place and strung as you would wish, the volumes you have done me the honor to ask my acceptance of. I have before read most of their contents with a just estimate of the motive, the talent, and the independence they display.
It gratifies me to possess them in so acceptable a form, and one thus facilitating recurrence and quickening what is dear to me, the remembrance of the author.
Do not complain or be discouraged, or ‘abate one jot of heart or hope’ because they occasion ‘coldness’ in some, or are met with a politic indifference by others.
Truth would you teach and save a sinking land,
Most shun, none aid you, and few understand.
He who takes a stand in morals, in an atmosphere somewhat more elevated and ethereal than that in which live the multitude, whose eyes ale always on the earth, who dread all tracks which are not beaten, and who never feel safe but when in herd, must expect not to be valued according to his worth or his aims; and he who crosses prevailing interests, passions, or prejudices must not be surprised or shaken by attempts to frown down what cannot be pulled down, and to deter by petty annoyance and neglect the self-sustained tranquillity of a mind whose action they would limit or suspend.
I can only say to you in the language of the Sibyl,—
Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito,
Qua tua te Fortuna sinet.
Via prima salutis,
Quod minime reris—pandetur.
Truly and respectfully yours,
