"To say that I am delighted with 'The Religion of Evolution' is but
a poor way of expressing myself. You could not have sent me a more
timely book. I would like to get all of Mr. Savage's books. You
'wish I could go to Boston,' etc. Ah! you do not know how I
sometimes yearn for some such thing myself. I find my great
pleasure and recreation in intellectual pursuits; and of course I
have not nearly so great advantages in a small city as I would have
in a large one. But for meditation and communion with the Infinite,
communion with Nature and the incomprehensible God, I must have
solitude. It was a favorite dream of my childhood that I would be a
minister. But I have to work in another way. My father died when I
was six years of age, and my mother therefore had a struggle to
give us an education,--that inestimable blessing of a common-school
education. I feel that the highest work for me is to support her to
the best of my ability.... I value highly the sermons you send me.
Most of our churches here offer one 'dry bones' instead of the
living truth. Do you know of any low-priced publication which would
give me a fair sketch of Theodore Parker's life and thought? I
would like to know something of him. I am greatly pleased with the
'Register.' Mr. Savage's sermons are also a feast to me. The
sermons of J. F. Clarke you sent me in June have a ring about them
and a spirit in them that I find in few others."