Volume I Part 30 (1/2)
TO W D O'CONNOR
NEW ORLEANS, April, 1886
MY DEAR O'CONNOR,--Your dainty little gift was deeply appreciated By thisan editorial on the subject--rather hastily written, Ito pressure of other work,--but calculated, I trust, to excite interest in the nobly-written defence of Mrs Pott's marvellous commentary
I have not written you because I felt unable to interest you in the condition I have been long in--struggling between the necessities of my _trade_ and the aspirations of what I hope to prove my _art_ I have a little Chinese book on Ticknor & Co's stocks: if it appear you will receive it, and perhaps enjoy soes The volume is an attempt in the direction I hope to make trius,--leaves for a future volume to appear, God knohen, under the title ”Notebook of an I it I expect to publish a novelette, which will be dedicated to you,--if I think it worthy of you I ork at it all this summer
I may also tell you that since I last wrote a very positive change has been effected in my opinions by the study of Herbert Spencer He has completely converted me away from all 'isms, or sympathies with 'isue but oive adhesion to the belief in human automatism,--and that positive skepticism that imposes itself upon an undisciplined mind has been eternally dissipated in my case I do not know if this philosophy interests you; but I am sure it would, if you are not already, as I suspect, an adept in it I have only read, so far, the First Principles; but all the rest are corollaries only
Now I have been selfish enough with o_;--let me trust you are well, not over-busy, and as happy as it is possible to be under ordinary conditions I may run away to the sea for a while; Ia few hours in Washi+ngton on my way back from New York But whether I see you or not, believe always in my sincere affection
Your friend, LAFCADIO HEARN
TO W D O'CONNOR
NEW ORLEANS, April, 1886
DEAR O'CONNOR,--I had not received your letter when I wrotebeen ill, and especially ill in a hich I a been alo The same causes, the same symptoms--in every particular Luckily for me I found a warmer cli, and men of influence who took an interest in s my oay Rest and cultivation of the _aniot er than I ever was in some ways; but I have not the same recuperative vitality,--I cannot trust myself to any severe mental strain ”Sickness is health,”
they say, for those who have received one of Nature's severe corrections
I mention ive you, if possible, the benefit ofsleep is necessary, for two or three years Do not be afraid to take ten, eleven, or twelve hours when you so feel inclined I observe that the mind accomplishes more, and in a shorter time, after these protracted rests Never hen you feel that little pain in the back of the head Rare beefsteaks,--eggs just warmed,--and claret and water to stimulate appetite as often as possible, are ireat deal I think a few months, or even weeks, at the sea, would astonish you by the result It did me The abyss, out of which all ulf of Creation,--seems still to retain its mysterious power: the Spirit still hovers over the Face of the Deep,--and the very breath of the ocean gives new soul to the blood
You will already knohat I think of your beautiful book, with all of which I heartily concur But do not atteht not to trust yourself to do more than three or four hours' work a day,--and even this application ought to be interrupted at intervals I take a s--_please do not doubt it_--is plenty of nourishment, cultivation of appetite, and ht herself--slowly, though surely
Do not write to me if it tires you I know just how it is; I know also that you feel well toward me even if you have to keep silence I rite whenever I think I can interest you,--and never fail to dropto please you--just a line I would not have been silent so long, had I even suspected you were ill My own illness of eight years back was caused by years of night-work--16 hours a day
Several of e to attempt a different class of work, and, as the French say, I have been able to re- all this: I understand so exactly how you have been that I aestions I can
I remain, dear O'Connor, Very affectionately, LAFCADIO HEARN
TO H E KREHBIEL
NEW ORLEANS, May, 1886
DEAR KREHBIEL,--I think I shall soon be able to send you a Hindoo Yes, a Hindoo,--with Orientally white teeth, the result of vegetal diet and Brahnathous, I am sorry to say, and not therefore of purest Aryan breed He , a Sepoy deserter, a Sikh drummed out of the army, a Brahmin who has lost caste, a Pariah thief, a ht-hand caste (or other sections too horrible to naol Islamite from Delhi, a Ghoorkha, a professional fraud, a Jesuitic convert on trialI know not;--I send hi; you can take care of yourself! I send hi the awful results of his visit to 305 West Fifty-fifth Street
How did I find him? Well, he came one day to our office to protest about solish well, wrote with sufficient accuracy to contribute to the _T-D_, and had been in the Indian civil service I questioned him on Hindoo literature: found him soavad-Gita and the Vedantas,--heard hihts--Kalidasa, Vyasa, Jayadeva, Bhartrihari He first taught me accurately to pronounce the awful title _Mricchakatika_, which means ”The Chariot of Baked Clay;”
and he translated for reat effort and very badly, one of the delicious love-lyrics of the divine Auely about the vast Mother of Languages
And he sang for me the chants of the temples, in a shrill Indian tenor, withof notes--melancholy, dreamy, drowsy, like the effect of monotonous echoes in a day of intense heat and atmospheric oppression
Why, then, did not my heart warm toward him? Was it because, in the columns of the _Ti of s and abused the Govern subject? Was it because he made his appearance simultaneously with that of that colossal fraud, the ”North, South and Central Anathisly sinister eye, like the eye of a creature of prey; his shaky suppleness of ht I trust myself alone with a man who looked like one of the characters of the ”Moonstone”? And yet I regretwhat a ridiculous roht have made!
Never mind, I send hi you the chants and dirges of his sun-devoured land Let hi!--let hiive it to him, and watch hiesture of one about to pull forth a et, or to look for work He worked here in aupon rice and beans more cheaply than a Chinaman Yet beware you do not sive hied name is Sattee or Suttee--perhaps most probably the _latter_, as he advocates it)
I received your book--a char clear tinted paper, not too glossy; fascinating type; broadThanks for dear little phrase written in it I will send first criticis else to talk of later