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to permit a recontinuance of our correspondence. Fred will take to her the letter and what its answer will be I am very anxious to see one year has now passed since we last wrote and I know she will be much surprised, yet I have still a high regard for Lucy and if it is at all returned I cannot bring myself to the abandoning of this acquaintance, though my uncertainty of success in art life might make it appear to me better to relinquish all that would tend to strengthen our attachment. Yet are all selfish and as I have shown myself on the other page I am suprimly inconsistant in harmonizing my life with my good principles, particularly when principles and inclinations are antagonistic, and I confess to a great interest or affection (for I am unable to define entirely the nature of my feeling even to myself) for my sweet "camarade" of the summer of '73 and this long silence m'ennuait beaucoup. Fred and his Mother leave for England next week. Nannie is in Dresden - they all sail the 22d proximo. I hear from home that the family have gone to the farm for a couple of months. Next summer I hope to pass with them all and if we are only at the farm then how I shall work it appears to me as if I were now just beginning to understand what course of study to persue. I comprehend more clearly the work of great men and wish more earnestly than ever to gain some of their qualities. I feel however as if each day my art was becoming more material and as I see the masters in realism about me, I scarcely see much room left in a mans life than to paint marvellously well a "morceau de chiffon". Thought and idea seem almost loosing themselves, and I believe I am becoming a brute.