KUMAMOTO, Spring, 1894.
DEAR HENDRICK,-- ... Are you reading the _Atlantic_ at all? There is a
wonderful story by Mrs. Deland, "Philip and his Wife." Philip's wife
makes me think always of E. B.
The problem of merely being able to live. What a plague it is! And the
pain of life isn't hunger, isn't want, isn't cold, isn't sickness,
isn't physical misery of any kind: it is simply moral pain caused by
the damnable meanness of those who try to injure others for their
own personal benefit or interest. That is really all the pain of the
struggle of life.
Ever faithfully,
LAFCADIO HEARN.