In less than three years from this time the nervous suffering from
overwork became so intense that Mr. Dewey was advised to go abroad
[143] to obtain the absolute rest from labor that was impossible here.
To Miss Catherine M. Sedgwick.
SHEFFIELD, May 2, 1833.
My DEAR FRIEND,--I am about to go abroad. I have made up my mind to
that huge, half pleasurable, half painful undertaking; or shall I say,
rather, that both the pleasure and the pain come by wholes, and not by
halves? The latter I feel as a domestic man, for I must go alone; the
former I feel as a civilized man. Civilized, I say, for who that has
the lowest measure of educated intelligence and sensibility can expect
to tread all the classic lands of the world, Greece only excepted,
without a thrill of delight?
If you should think that I had written thus much as claiming your
sympathy in what so much interests me, and if you should think
this without accusing me of presumption, I should be tempted, were
I assured of the fact, to stop here, and to leave the matter on a
footing so gratifying to my feelings. But I must not venture to take so
considerable a risk, and must therefore hasten to tell you that what I
have said is only a vestibule to something further.
Nor is the vestibule at all too large or imposing for the object, as
I conceive it, to which it is to open the way; for I am about to ask
through you, if you will consent and condescend to be the medium, a
very considerable favor of a very distinguished man. Among many letters
of introduction which I have received, it so happens, as they say in
Parliament, that I can obtain none to certain persons that I want to
see quite as much as any others [144] in Europe. None of our Boston
gentlemen that I can find are acquainted with Professor Wilson, or Miss
Ferrier, the author of "Inheritance," or Thomas Moore, or Campbell,
or Bulwer. The "Noctes Ambrosianx," with other things, have made me a
great admirer of Wilson; and Miss Ferriers (I don't know whether her
name ends with s or not) I had rather see than any woman in Europe.
She comes nearer to Sir Walter, I think, than any writer of fiction
abroad, and in depth of religious sentiment goes very far beyond him.
Now, I presume that Washington Irving is acquainted with all these
individuals; and what I venture to ask is, whether, through your
intervention, letters can be obtained from him to any of them, and
especially to the two first.
Now I must make you comprehend how little I wish you to go out of your
way, or to put any constraint on yourself in the matter. I have none
of the passion for seeing celebrated men, merely as such. Those whose
writings have interested me, I do, of course, wish to see; but I am to
be too hasty a traveller to make it a great object to see them, or to
go very much out of my way for it. Above all, if you have the least
reluctance to ask this of Mr. Irving, you must allow me to impose
it as a condition of my request that you will not do it; or if Mr.
Irving is reluctant to give the letters, do not undertake to tell me
so with any circumlocution, for I understand all about the delicacy of
these Transatlantic connections. I only fear that the very length of
this letter will convey to you an undue impression of the importance
which I give to the subject of it. Pray construe it not so, but set it
down as one of the involuntary consequences of the pleasure I have in
conversing with you.
Very truly your friend,