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"The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II."

Nichol of Glasgow, who was to
sail in the "Acadia," and in giving him credentials to some
Americans. I find here a very kind reception from your friends,
as they emphatically are,--Ireland, Espinasse, Miss Jewsbury, Dr.
Hodgson, and a circle expanding on all sides outward,--and Mrs.
Paulet at Liverpool. I am learning there also to know friendly
faces, and a certain Roscoe Club has complimented me with its
privileges. The oddest part of my new position is my alarming
penny correspondence, which, what with welcomes, invitations to
lecture, proffers of hospitality, suggestions from good
Swedenborgists and others for my better guidance touching the
titles of my discourses, &c., &c., all requiring answers,
threaten to eat up a day like a cherry. In this fog and
miscellany, and until the heavenly sun shall give me one beam,
will not you, friend and joy of so many years, send me a quiet
line or two now and then to say that you still smoke your pipe in
peace, side by side with wife and brother also well and smoking,
or able to smoke? Now that I have in some measure calmed down
the astonishment and consternation of seeing your dreams change
into realities, I mean, at my next approximation or perihelion,
to behold you with the most serene and sceptical calmness.


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