To his Daughters.
ST. DAVID'S, Feb. 23, 1869.
. . . WE are going on very nicely, neither sick nor sad. Our winter
evening readings have been very fortunate this season. First,
"Lord Jeffrey's Life and Letters," and now, "Draper's Intellectual
Development in Europe." I had read it before, but it is a greater book
than I had thought. I must say that I had rather pass my evenings as we
do,--some writing, some reading, then a quiet game, and then at my desk
again,--than to take the chances of society, in town or country. If I
can get you to think as I do, we shall pass a happy life here. Heaven
grant that I may not fall into a life of pain! With our good spirits,
as they now are, we every day fall into a quantity of dramatic capers
that are enough to make a cat laugh,--no bigger animal.
Hoping you may have as much folly, for what saith Paley? "He that is
not a fool sometimes, is always one,"--and wishing you all merry, I am
as ever,
Your loving father,