ty
enough in one afternoon, not a fortnight ago, to last me for a year if
I could rejoice in memory.

I have a painter friend, Mr. Goodwin, coming to keep me company, and
I'm a little content in this worst of rainy days, in hopes there _may_
be now some clearing for him.

Our little kittens pass the days of their youth up against the wall at
the back of the house, where the heat of the oven comes through. What
an existence! and yet with all my indoor advantages

I am your sorrowful and repining
J. R.

* * * * *

I am entirely grateful for your letter, and for all the sweet feelings
expressed in it, and am entirely reverent of the sorrow which you feel
at my speaking thus. If only all were like you! But the chief sins and
evils of the day are caused by the Pharisees, exactly as in the time
of Christ, and "they make broad their phylacteries" in the same way,
the Bible superstitiously read, becoming the authority for every error
and heresy and cruelty. To make its readers understand that the God of
their own day is as living, and as able to speak to them directly as
ever in the days of Isaiah and St. John, and that He would now send
messages to His Seven Churches, if the Churches would hear, needs
stronger words than any I have yet dared to use, against the idolatry
of the historical record of His messages long ago, perverted by men's
forgetfulness, and confused by mischance and misapprehension; and if
instead of the Latin form "Scripture" we put always "writing" instead
of "written" or "write" in one place, and "Scripture" as if it meant
our English Bible, in another, it would make such a difference to our
natural and easy understanding the range of texts.

The peacock's feathers are marvelous. I am very glad to see them. I
never had any of their downy ones before. My compliments to the bird,
upon them, please.

I found a strawberry growing just to please itself, as red as a ruby,
high up on Yewdale crag yesterday, in a little corner of rock all its
own; so I left it to enjoy itself. It seemed as happy as a lamb, and
no more meant to be eaten.

Yes, those are all sweetest bits from Chaucer (the pine new to me);
your own copy is being bound. And all the Richard,--but you must not
copy out the Richard bits, for I like all my Richard alike from
beginning to end. Yes, my "seed pearl" bit is pretty, I