received with the same pleasure with which they
had been written. My father, who had encouraged me before my entrance upon
a public career, was not only grieved by my return to my old mode of life,
but greatly opposed to it, and manifested this in the strongest words in
the next letter that I received from him. My mother on the contrary, who
had not been at all enthusiastic in the beginning, was rather glad to
receive the news. As I had left many good friends among the physicians of
Berlin, my letters were always circulated, after their arrival, by one of
their number who stood high in the profession; and, though I did not
receive my father's approbation, he sent me several letters from strangers
who approved my conduct, and who, after hearing my letters, had sent him
congratulations upon my doings in America. How he received the respect
thus manifested to him, you can judge from a passage in one of his
letters, which I will quote to you:--

"I am proud of you, my daughter; yet you give me more grief than any other
of my children. If you were a young man, I could not find words in which
to express my satisfaction and pride in respect to your acts; for I know
that all you accomplish you owe to yourself: but you are a woman, a weak
woman; and all that I can do for you now is to grieve and to weep. O my
daughter! return from this unhappy path. Believe me, the temptation of
living for humanity _en masse,_ magnificent as it may appear in its aim,
will lead you only to learn that all is vanity; while the ingratitude of
the mass for whom you choose to work will be your compensation."

Letters of this sort poured upon me; and, when my father learned that
neither his reasoning nor his prayers could turn me from a work which I
had begun with such enthusiasm, he began to threaten; telling me that I
must not expect any pecuniary assistance from him; that I would contract
debts in Cleveland which I should never be able to pay, and which would
certainly undermine my prospects; with more of this sort. My good father
did not know that I had vowed to myself, on my arrival in America, that I
would never ask his aid; and besides, he never imagined that I could go
for five months with a single cent in my pocket. Oh, how small all these
difficulties appeared to me, especially at a time when I began to speak
English! I felt so rich, that I never thought money could not be had,
whenever I wanted it in good earnest.

After having been nine m