Letters to a Friend 



We remember in a peculiar way those who 

 first gave us the story of Redeeming Love from 

 the great book of Revelation, and I shall not 

 forget the Doctor, who first laid before me the 

 great book of Nature, and though I have taken 

 so little from his hand he has at least shown 

 me where those mines of priceless knowledge 

 lie and how to reach them. O how frequently, 

 Mrs. Carr, when lonely and wearied, have I 

 wished that like some hungry worm I could 

 creep into that delightful kernel of your house, 

 your library, with its portraits of scientific men, 

 and so bountiful a store of their sheaves amid 

 the blossom and verdure of your little kingdom 

 of plants, luxuriant and happy as though hold 

 ing their leaves to the open sky of the most 

 flower-loving zone in the world ! 



That "sweet day" did as you wished reach 

 our hollow, and another is with us now. The 

 sky has the haze of autumn, and excepting the 

 aspen not a tree has motion. Upon our enclos 

 ing wall of verdure new tints appear, the gor 

 geous dyes of autumn are to be plainly seen, and 

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