TO 



HERBERT SPENCER. 



My dear Spencer : . • . 



// was thirty years ago this ??i(?nth that our personal ac- 

 quaintance began, in so far as the exchange of letters could 

 make such a beginning. It was at the time of my first visit 

 to Youmans, in this very street and withi?i a stone's throiv from 

 where I 7iow sit ivriting ; and as the last of this memorial 

 vohwie goes hence to the press, recollections of days that can 

 never come again crowd thickly upon me. Our friend ex- 

 pressed a ivish that, if his biography ivere to be written, I 

 should be the one to do it j ?io sign from him is needed to assure 

 me that he would have been glad to have me dedicate it to you. 

 Pray accept the book, my dear Spencer, ivith all its imperfec- 

 tions, in toke?i of the long friendship zue have shared ivith each 

 other a?td with him who has gone from us j and believe me, 

 as always. 



Faithfully yours, 



John Fiske. 



Irving Place, New York, February 12, i8g4. 



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