"
It is thirty-three years in July, I believe, since I first saw
her, and her conversation and faultless manners gave assurance of
a good and happy future. As I have not witnessed any decline, I
can hardly believe in any, and still recall vividly the youthful
wife, and her blithe account of her letters and homages from
Goethe, and the details she gave of her intended visit to Weimar,
and its disappointment. Her goodness to me and to my friends was
ever perfect, and all Americans have agreed in her praise.
Elizabeth Hoar remembers her with entire sympathy and regard.
I could heartily wish to see you for an hour in these lonely
days. Your friends, I know, will approach you as tenderly as
friends can; and I can believe that labor--all whose precious
secrets you know--will prove a consoler,--though it cannot quite
avail, for she was the rest that rewarded labor. It is good that
you are strong, and built for endurance. Nor will you shun to
consult the awful oracles which in these hours of tenderness are
sometimes vouchsafed. If to any, to you.
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