My Dear Carlyle,--I hope you will have returned safely from the
Orkneys in time to let my son Edward W.E. see your face on his
way through London to Germany, whither he goes to finish his
medical studies,--no, not finish, but prosecute. Give him your
blessing, and tell him what he should look for in his few days in
London, and what in your Prussia. He is a good youth, and we can
spare him only for this necessity. I should like well to
accompany him as far as to your hearthstone, if only so I could
persuade you that it is but a ten-days ride for you thence to
mine,--a little farther than the Orkneys, and the outskirts of
land as good, and bigger. I read gladly in your letters some
relentings toward America,--deeper ones in your dealing with
Harvard College; and I know you could not see without interest
the immense and varied blossoming of our possibilities here,--of
all nationalities, too, besides our own. I have heard from Mrs.
--- twice lately, who exults in your kindness to her.
Always affectionately, Yours,
R.W. Emerson