Volume I Part 28 (1/2)
MY DEAR BALL,--I regretable to congratulate you upon a grand success and still grander opportunities The salary you are promised is nearly double that obtained by the best journalist in the country (excepting one or two ers); it far exceeds the average earnings of expert her professions; and there are not many authors in the United States who can rely upon such an income So that you have a fine chance to accue scholarly tastes and large leisure to gratify theh too heavily upon one point before, but I think I shall not hesitate to do so now I refer to the question of literary effort Again I would say: Leave all profane writing alone for at least five years more; and devote all your talent, study, sense of beauty, force of utterance to your ministerial work You will her In the ht, your scholarshi+p; and when the proper tiood, literary effort What we i is apt really to be very old; and that which appears to us very old suddenly grows youthful at a later day with the youth of Truth's ienii, who appear at intervals as broad as those elapsing in Indian myth between the apparition of the Buddhas, can sit down before the age of thirty-five or forty, and create anything really great Again the h it be,--has a depth you will scarcely appreciate until a later day It is power for good, quite assucceeds like success,” you know Once you occupy a great place in the great religious world of wealth and elegance and beauty, you will find yourself possessed of an influence that will enable you to realize any ambition which inspires you This is the best answer I can now give to your last request for a little friendly counsel, and it is uttered only because I feel that being older than you, and having been knocked considerably about the world, I can venture to offer the results ofnearer toI shall have little to show you except books, but ill have a splendid tiood to send you The story appeared in _Harper's Bazar_
Sincerely your friend, LAFCADIO HEARN
TO REV WAYLAND D BALL
NEW ORLEANS, July, 1885
MY DEAR BALL,--Your welcome letter came to me just at a happy moment when I had time to reply I would have written before, but for a protracted illness I a; and the clear waters of that Florida spring seduced e while very hot
The water was cold as death; and when I got back to New Orleans, I had the novel experience of a Florida fever,--slow, torpid, and unconquerable by quinine Now I ae of ”Stray Leaves” is all es translated froh published in a newspaper, is one of a number I have prepared for the little volume of impressions I told you about I sent it as an illustration of the literary theory discussed in our previous correspondence, which I am surprised you remember so well
Apropos of your previous letter, I must observe that I do not like James Freeman Clarke's work,--immense labour whose results are nullified by a purely sectarian purpose Mr Clarke sat down to study with the preconceived purpose of belittling other beliefs by comparison with Christianity,--a process quite as irrational and narroould be an attempt in the opposite direction My very huy ledto me a universal aspiration of hty, so deeply sincere, so touching, that I have ceased to perceive the least absurdity in any general idea of worshi+p, whether fetish or ht of the child man or the dream of hoary Indian philosophy Nor can I for the same reason necessarily feel e of the Hindoo God of light, holding in one of hisa necklace of skulls,--syetter and the Universal Putrifier
A noble and excellently conceived address that of yours on Thos
Paine,--bolder than I thought your congregation was prepared for Yes, I certainly think you are going to effect a great deal in a good cause, the cause of enerosity and intellectual freedoreat teacher, a social emancipator, and I feel sure what you have already done is nothing to be co you retain health and strength
I don't know just what to say about your literary articles; but I can speak to the editor-in-chief, who is otry here Even my editorials upon Sanscrit literature called out abuse of the paper from various N O pulpits, as ”A Buddhist Newspaper,” an ”Infidel sheet,” etc If published first in the Boston paper, I could get the lecture reproduced, I think, in ours
If you expect remuneration you would have to send the MS first to us and take the chances I think what you best do in the interie M Baker, Editor _T-D_,my name, and await reply
You asked ot to answer I have no photograph at present, but will have some taken soon and will send you one
Very sincerely yours, LAFCADIO HEARN
TO REV WAYLAND D BALL
NEW ORLEANS, 1885
DEAR BALL,--I regret extre you--due partly to travel, partly to work, for I have considerable extra work to do for the Harpers, and for myself You ask me about literary ventures I suppose you have seen the little book Osgood published for e Literature,” a volu printed except a dictionary of Creole proverbs which could scarcely interest you,--and some Oriental essays, which appeared in newspapers only, but which I hope to collect and edit in per upon a little book of personal impressions, which I expect to finish this summer Of course I will keep the story you want for you, and mail it; and if you have not seen my other book I will send it you
Your project about a correspondence is pleasant enough; but I am now si during a short absence in Florida In any event, however, I do not quite see how this thing could prove profitable I doubt very much if Christ is not a myth, just as Buddha is There may have been a teacher called Jesus, and there ical and philosophical systein, and represent only the evolution of human ideas froend of Buddha is non to have been only the developend of Jesus ht be traced to the beliefs of primitive and pastoral humanity What matter creeds, myths, traditions, to you or me, who perceive in all faiths one vast truth,--one phase of the Universal Life? Why trouble ourselves about detailed comparisons while we know there is an Infinite which all thinkers are striving vainly to reach by different ways, and an Infinite invisible of which all things visible are but emanations? Worlds are but dreaalaxies of suns burn out, the heavens wither; even time and space are only relative; and the civilization of a planet but an incident of its growth To those who feel these things religious questions are valueless and void of , except in their relation to the developht is too large for the compass of a busy life
In haste, your friend, LAFCADIO HEARN
I read your serave a copy to our editor-in-chief
TO W D O'CONNOR
NEW ORLEANS, July, 1885
MY DEAR O'CONNOR,--Your kind little surprise caet better; for everything which cheers one during an attack of swamp-fever aids convalescence As you know, I ood deal, in the pursuit of impressions The wonderful water especially teood swimmer, and always crazy to enjoy a dive, so I yielded to the seduction of Silver Spring It was a very hot day; but the flood was cold as the grip of old Death I didn't feel the effect right away; but when I got back home found I had a fever that quinine would take no effect upon Now I aht, and will be off to the sea soon to recruit
Well, I thought I would wait to write until I could introduce myself to you, as you so delicately divined that I wanted you to do to er than I wished or intended Photographs are usually surprises;--your face was not exactly what I had iined, but it pleased me more--I had fancied you a little stern, very dark, with black eyes,--partly, perhaps, because others of your name whom I knew had that purplish black hair and eyes which seems a special race-characteristic,--partly perhaps from some fantastic little idea evolved by the effort to create a person fro constituted a sort of _track_ by which individuality could be recognized I kno that I should feel a little less ti you; for I see time,--intimately and without s which ustine; the other, a translation which, though clureat poet's weird fancy