," and
of the former, your friendship as among the most prized and dear.

With utmost love to you all,

ORVILLE DEWEY.

To William Cullen Bryant, Esq.

ST. DAVID'S, March 14, 1876.

MY DEAR FRIEND,--I have begun to look upon myself as an old man. I never
did before. I have felt so [335] young, so much at least as I always
have done, that I could n't fairly take in the idea. The giftie has n't
been gi'ed me to see myself as others see me. Even yet, when they get up
to offer me the great chair, I can't understand it. But at length I have
so far come into their views as seriously to ask myself what it is fit
for an old man to do, or to undertake. And I have come to the conclusion
that the best thing for me is to be quiet, to keep, at least, to my
quiet and customary method of living,-in other words, to be at home.
My wife is decidedly of that opinion for herself, and, by parity of
reasoning, for me; and I am inclined to think she is right.

This parity, however, does not apply to you. You are six months younger
than I am, by calendar, and six years in activity; you go back and forth
like Cicero to his country villas; pray stop at my door some day, and
let me see you.

You see where all this points. I decide not to go to New York at
present, notwithstanding all the attractions which you hold out to me.
I don't feel like leaving home while this blustering March is roaring
about the house. And from the mild winter we have had, I expect it to
grow more like a lion at the end.

With love to J. and Miss F.,

Your timid old friend,

ORVILLE DEWEY.

To Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D.D.

Aug. 7, 1876.

DEAR FRIEND,--I can't be quite still, though I have nothing to say but
how good you must be, to see so much good in others! That is what
always strikes me [336] in your oraisons funebres, and equally, the fine
discrimination you always show. And both appear in your loving notice
of my volume.' Well, I take it to heart, and accept, though I cannot
altogether understand it. Such words, from such a person as you, are a
great thing to me. It is to me a great comfort to retire from the scene
with such a testimony, instead of a bare civil dismissal, which is all I
was looking for from anybody.

Mr. Dewey was urged to the publication of this last volume of sermons
by several of his most valued friends; and its warm acceptance by the
public justified their opinion, and gave him the peculiar gratification
of feeling that in his