though
some fear of death is wholesomely implanted in us, to make us shun
danger and to prevent the numbers who, without it, would impatiently
rush away from the evils of their present existence through that gate,
yet certainly one-half of the King of Terror's paraphernalia we invest
him with ourselves; since, really, being born is quite as wonderful,
and, when we consider the involuntary obligations of existence thus
thrust upon us, quite as awful a thing as dying can possibly be.

You retort upon me for having fallen from the observance of
anniversaries, that I am still a devout worshiper of places, and in this
sense, perhaps, an idolater.... My love for certain places is
inexplicable to myself. They have, for some reasons which I have not
detected, so powerfully affected my imagination, that it will
thenceforth never let them go. I retain the strongest impression of some
places where I have stayed the shortest time; thus there is a certain
spot in the hill country of Massachusetts, called Lebanon, where I once
spent two days....

I was going to tell you how like Paradise that place was to my memory,
and with what curious yearning I have longed to visit it again, but I
was interrupted; and in the intervening hours S---- has sickened of the
measles, and I am now sitting writing by her bedside, not a little
disturbed by my own cogitations, and her multitudinous questions, the
continuous stream of which is nothing slackened by an atmosphere of 91 deg.
in the shade, and the furious fever of her own attack....

As soon as S---- is sufficiently recovered, we purpose going to the
seaside to escape from the horrible heat. Our destination is a certain
beach on the shore of Long Island, called Rockaway, where there is fine
bathing, and a good six miles of hard sand for riding and driving. After
that, I believe we shall go to the hill country of Berkshire, to visit
our friends the Sedgwicks. I wonder whether your love for heat would
have made agreeable to you a six-mile ride I took to-day, at about
eleven o'clock, the thermometer standing at 94 deg. in the shade. If this is
not more _warmth_ than even you can away with, you must be "bold and
determined like any salamander, ma'am." ... My love for flowers is the
same as ever. Last winter in London I almost ruined myself in my
nosegays, and came near losing my character by them, as nobody would
believe I was so gallant to myself _out of my own pocket_. My room is
always full of