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of Hamburgh has made a great sensation in the whole of Germany.
Our affairs in Saxony, particularly, go on well.
Trade and industry are flourishing, and agriculture, which was till now a little neglected, begins to make good progress
You will, perhaps, find a notable difference in the character of my writing, and I hope not for the worse.
I am indebted for this change to the New World, having taken, this winter, lessons in writing after the American method, as one calls it in Gerrany.
Now, it may be, or not be, an invention of the New World.
I, for my part, am very content with it, having till now been much censured for my bad writing.
I finish these lines by praying you to commend me to Mrs. Ticknor's recollection, and by the expressions of the highest consideration, with which I am
Your affectionate
John, Duke of Saxony
To Rev. H. H. Milman, London.
Boston, U. S. A., May 7, 1842.
my dear Sir,—A recent and most pleasant visit we have had from our mutual friends,—as I trust I may now call them,—the Lyells, reminds me that I owe an acknowledgment for your very agreeable letter, written to me last winter, and that I have a subject on which to speak to you, that will make you glad to listen to me. For I know you will always be glad to hear about the Lyells; and I am sure you can hear nothing from this side of the Atlantic about them which would not give you pleasure.
Their visit has thus far certainly been successful.
Mr. Lyell has found enough in the geology of the country to reward him for his trouble, and enough intelligent geologists to help him on, and show him what he wanted to see. After his long tour at the South, therefore, in the States where the presence of slavery infects everything, and renders the travelling—especially to strangers—disagreeable, he has just left us—first stopping a fortnight in my family—for a still longer tour in the West and in Canada. . . . But to Mrs. Lyell these varieties, as far as they chance to be disagreeable, are not of consequence, so long as geology goes on well.
She is one of those who ‘make a sunshine in a shady place,’ and I really believe she has enjoyed herself, almost everywhere she has been.
Certainly everybody has been delighted with her. . . . .
And this reminds me of what I said in a former letter about education in Boston, and your reply to it, that Boston is, probably, in advance 