I have but one moment moment My dear Joseph to acknowledge the receipt of your most welcome letter, and to thank you again and again for the considerate kindness which prompted the immediate intelligence of ...

Your most affectionate and welcome letters, My ever dear Ellen, have been almost the only pleasures of this most afflicting winter. your separation from us has been a comfort even, as it has spared me the anguish of witnessing your sorrow and when I have been most oppressed I have looked to your...

No apology is due My dear Joseph for the earnestness with which you urge Cornelia’s visit. believe me you can not be more anxious about it than I am, and I hope we shall be able to accomplish it without resorting to the means you propose. not that my heart does not admit...

I have not written for a long time My dear Sister because in truth I had nothing but painful subjects to communicate. the unfortunate event of the sale I have long anticipated not altogether however to the extent it has gone. the property has fallen very far short of the payment of the debts. it...

We have just despatched a box containing such a ridiculous heterogeneous collection, that even you will smile when you unpack it. to begin with the principal article of the catalogue, and which in fact obtained transportation for the rest, is the writing desk for Joseph which I mentioned in a...

I wrote a hurried scrawl to Mr Coolidge by the last mail which would have been burnt if I had had time to collect my thoughts to do better, but although I went in to Nicholas’s pavillion and it rained furiously while I was there, I was so often interrupted, and even forced to leave My letter to...

I shall make no apologies My dear Joseph, for leaving your letter from Nahant so long unanswered. I shall often be prevented by circumstances which I can neither foresee nor controul, but never by indolence or ...

I must write to you My dear Ellen, when I can, and not wait for time to do it quietly and rationally. I have literally not one quiet hour from 5 in the morning my usual hour of rising, till 10 at night, when we generally retire. the odd half hours and quarters that I can command I will most...

I could never make you understand my dear Sister how impossible it is for me to be punctual, without any laziness on my part. but you have been kind enough to give me credit for my good intentions and wave all ceremony in writing your self, for which I am most grateful. we have allways a great...

I wrote to Mrs Coolidge by the last mail, but really in a state of mind so unfit that if there had been any probability of it’s being more composed before the crisis of the 8th ...