for, and been hindered by a multitude, as I now see,
of very superfluous scruples, which are at least successfully
conquered._

"_Do you know that since I saw you I have made the acquaintance of your
dear wife? A very, very pleasant acquaintance; if I had only made it a
few years sooner, it might have been very useful to me. Well, even now
it is not too late to rejoice, that you have what you need, the
happiness you desire, in such a noble, wise, and loving life companion.
Give my kindest remembrances to her. In my incognito I may have behaved
strangely. But the idea of assuming it flashed upon me so suddenly,
and, with the help of my faithful maid, it was carried so quickly into
execution, that I had no time to consider what role I should play. So
every thing was done on the spur of the moment. To be sure, I had at
first a vague idea of proposing that you should accompany me on the
great journey. But one glance into your home quickly told me, that you
must be happiest there, that your 'promised land' is the room, where
your desk and the artist table of your wife stand so quietly and
peacefully side by side._

"_Farewell, 'dear friend!' I should like to talk with you still
longer--to philosophize as we used to call it; but what would be the
use? Or has any sage ever given a satisfactory answer to the question,
of how the commandment that the sins of the fathers must be visited on
the children, can be made to harmonize with the idea of a just
government of the world? Why should a freak of nature, an abnormal
creation, be expected to fulfil all the grave normal demands we are
justified in making upon ordinary human beings? Or why are we usually
punished by the gratification of our wishes, and allowed to perceive
what we ought to have desired, only when it cannot be attained?_

"_A fool, you know, can propound more questions than ten philosophers
can answer. Perhaps I shall receive special enlightenment in the
'promised land.' My memory is stored with much that is beautiful; even
many a trial that I have experienced in the grey twilight of this
strange, cold, inhospitable world, was not borne wholly without
recompense. I would not give up even my sorrows, for the dull happiness
of commonplace wiseacres, who in their limited sphere think all things
perfectly natural and cling closely to their clod._

"_Farewell, my dear friend. Let me hope that you will always wherever I
may be, remember me with as much sympathy as the