itarianism. Good! and everything about him is good, but that he comes
after you. [163]

To the Same.

NEW YORK, July 10, 1837.

MY DEAR WARE,--I can scarcely moderate my expressions to the tone of
wisdom in telling you how much pleasure I have had in reading your
book,--how much I am delighted with you and for you. There is no person
to whom I would more gladly have had the honor fall of writing the
"Letters from Palmyra." And it is a distinction that places your
name among the highest in our--good-for-nothing--literature, as the
Martineau considers it. By the bye, you need n't think you are a-going
to stand at the head of everything, as she will have it. Have not I
written a book too, to say nothing of the names less known of Channing,
Irving, Bryant, etc.? And, by the bye, again, speaking of the Martineau,
she is a woman of one idea,--takes one view, that is, and knows nothing
of qualification,--and hence is opinionated and confident to a degree
that I think I never saw equalled. Julia, Fausta, nay, Zenobia, for
me, rather. How beautifully have you shown them up! And Gracchus
and Longinus as nobly. What things is literature doing to gratify
ambition,--things beyond its proudest hope! How little thought Zenobia
that her character, two thousand years after she lived, would be
illustrated by the genius of a clime that she dreamed not of!

My love and congratulations to your wife; my love and envy to you.

O. DEWEY.

[164] To the Same.

NEW YORK, May 13, 1838.

MY DEAR WARE,--Brother Pierpont has preached finely for me this
morning, and is to do so again this evening; and for this I find myself
indirectly indebted to you. But you are one of those to whom I can't
feel much obligation--for the love I bear you.

I wrote to you three weeks ago. I hope Mrs. Ware is patient and
sustained. Of you I expect it. But, O heaven! what a world of thought
does it take even to look on calamity!

Your name is abroad in the world as it should be. I rejoice. Pierpont
is now sitting by me, reading the London and Westminster article on
"Zenobia, or the Fall of Palmyra." I am glad you have altered the title.
We are looking for the sequel.

The next letter describes some of the difficulties of a journey from
Berkshire to New York forty years ago. The route by Hartford was
probably chosen instead of the ordinary one by Hudson, to take advantage
of the new railroad between that city and New Haven.

To his W.

NEW YORK, February