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

Carlyle
No time to re-read. I suppose you can decipher.


CLXVII. Carlyle to Emerson
Chelsea, 29 January, 1861
Dear Emerson,--The sight of my hand-writing will, I know, be
welcome again. Though I literally do not write the smallest Note
once in a month, or converse with anything but Prussian
Nightmares of a hideous [nature], and with my Horse (who is human
in comparison), and with my poor Wife (who is altogether human,
and heroically cheerful to me, in her poor weak state),--I must
use the five minutes, which have fallen to me today, in
acknowledgment, _du_e by all laws terrestrial and celestial, of
the last Book* that has come from you.
--------
* "The Conduct of Life."
--------
I read it a great while ago, mostly in sheets, and again read it
in the finely printed form,--I can tell you, if you do not
already guess, with a satisfaction given me by the Books of no
other living mortal. I predicted to your English Bookseller a
great sale even, reckoning it the best of all your Books. What
the sale was or is I nowhere learned; but the basis of my
prophecy remains like the rocks, and will remain.


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