216 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF SCHWEINITZ AND TORREY 
SCHWEINITZ TO TORREY 
BETHL. July 6th 1824 
My dear Sir 
It will occasionally happen that even a correspondence so 
agreeable & interesting in its nature as the one I am happy enough 
to enjoy with you, becomes subject to interruptions. The only 
remedy is to resume as soon as possible. Yours of the 20th 
May reached me some time in the middle of June & gave me the 
utmost pleasure—as a resumption of the kind on your part which I 
instantly felt the imperious duty of reciprocating, more especially 
as I have none of those excuses to make, which you urge upon me 
with irresistible force, for when a Lady’s in the case—of course all 
other things give place—but alas! see how I have again neglected, 
what in itself gives me such pleasure. Nevertheless I hope it is 
not too late to express my sincere congratulations upon your con- 
version from celibacy, in which besides my very unfeigned share in 
your happiness, I am not without interested motives. For I hold 
it a matter of course that every Lady, above all a married one, must 
necessarily become a promoter of the worship of Flora preferably 
to that of the author of Dust and Dirt, that enemy of all neatness 
and cleanliness in the house whom mineralogists delight to honor. 
My disappointment & vexation was at least equal to yours, when I 
found by your kind letter how near you were to me at Philadelphia, 
but it is surpassed by my anger at Mr. Collins who might have told 
me, as I had a long conversation with him about my desire of see- 
ing you, which had almost prompted me to return home by way of 
New York at that time. I am now glad I did not, for that would 
have been worse still had I missed you there. I am not without 
hopes, provided the yellow fever keeps out of the way to be able to 
effect a visit some time in the fall. Your kind interest in my 
health gave me sincere satisfaction. I thank God I have nothing to 
complain of & would have been active this year to a much greater 
degree than has been the case in Botany if my official duties had 
not been unusually pressing. I however contrived a short journey 
thro’ the mountains between this and the Susquehannah in May, 
which has not been quite unproductive. 
I should have been glad to receive the list of Carices you 
want me to give drawings of before this—for it will now be too 
