To Dr. Channing.
NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 1841.
MY DEAR SIR,--I cannot go away for two years without taking leave of
you. I wish I could do so by going to see you. But my decision to go
is not more than three weeks old, and the intervening time has been
overwhelmed with cares. Among other things, I have been occupied with
printing a volume of sermons. I feel as if it were a foolish thing to
confess, but I imagined that I had something to say about "human life"
(that is my subject), though I warrant you will find it little enough.
But then, you are accustomed to say so much better things than the rest
of us, that you ought to distrust your judgment.