Catharine Maria Sedgwick Online Letters

NewYork 8’ March -- My dearest Friend

my thoughts have not been absent from you tho’ nothing bearing my mark has come near you -- -- your two letters were filled with interest to me -- I was delighted -- grateful -- that you had so truly appreciated Anna B_ had felt & admired and bewailed the peculiarities of her character -- She has written to me since her return -- She feels what you are Eliza, and I am sure will be the better all her life for having seen you -- For having seen one gifted woman who wears the crown of christianity -- meekness -- over all her talents -- one -- a mortal -- a Sister who can pity her for her infirmities and will hail with full allowance a kindred genius -- Poor Anna -- I have known her through a great part of the drama of life -- I have seen her like an inspiring fountain sending forth delicious draughts for others to quaff while the dregs settled back upon herself -- -- -- her sensibility gleaming bright and beautiful to the eyes of others, & its keen edge piercing her own heart -- -- -- But Eliza -- enough of this 2 you understood her, and I am glad of it --

I felt it like a blow that the sweet peace and unity of your home was to be broken but I knew that you were all so good that if the pretty little stranger were only simple and unaffected you would take her to your hearts & love her all the better for the little struggle and sacrifice it cost you & so it seems it has proved -- A letter from Sister Susan assures me of your happiness -- and I trust it will long endure as perfect as is good for you -- It is best there should now and then come a blast Eliza to loosen affections that are apt to illegible adhere too tenaciously to the objects to which they cling -- --

I thank you dear for your kindness to all mine who have been with you this winter -- I gladly take part of the debt on my own shoulders -- Let me know exactly when you go to Philadelphia I have a great longing to travel some where with you this Summer -- Couldnot we manage an excursion to the Highlands on the Hudson? I have a fancy for exploring them -- -- -- Should you like to go to Maryland -- or to the Choctaws -- Cherokees -- Kickapoos -- any where 3 with you dear --

Bryant was very much tickled with getting your verses -- He came twice after them, but I wouldnot let him take the book, and I copied them and left them at the office to be taken by the Clerk to him and there they lay with the common fate of any thing Spiritual that gets into a mass of temporalities, till by some accident they reached their destination -- but too late for Bryants March number 1 -- -- Do you see the review -- and has it reputation in Boston the next number will have a very witty piece of Halleck's -- who I like more and more --

Have I ever told you that the gossiping world will have it that Thatcher Payne and my friend Susan Ledyard are going to forsake all others, & cleave to one another 2 -- that by the way they have already done -- She is deeply illegible in love -- and Thatcher’s vanity is illegible flattered by her devotion -- He knows she is a sagacious & proud woman -- and he feels that she has strong feelings, and that he commands them -- How it will end I know not -- Jane says she will be Queen Elizabeth to the end 3 -- and I 4 beleive that her tenderness will surrender to her pride of character -- and her self-respect -- But it is a hard struggle -- She reasons as well about it as any body, and feels the full force of the ridicule that would attach to it -- & yet I wouldnot answer for the end of it --

Keep this to yourself dear Eliza because I would not expose either of them to the laugh of those who felt no interest in them -- This is worse than Mrs Candour 4 -- but you know what I mean, and I have not paper to explain it --

How does Cooper’s book 5 go in B_ It is liked here much better than Lionel L_ I see Mrs Carey 6 now and then & always regret that I cannot see more of her -- she is a sweet sensible creature -- and loves you dearly & that is a tie -- I donot beleive you quite give credit to my little friend Mary Jane Miller for all her fine qualities -- I think she is a prodigy considering

You have never told me one word about your Sister Marian this winter, and, that little uninvited guest that had taste enough to insist on joining our agreeable Circle last Summer My best love to the girls -- --

We have a young artist here a farmer Cousin who has taken to painting instead of ploughing -- he has drawn a sweet face of Elizth which is pronounced exceedingly like you --

Farewell dearest Eliza CMS --