"Marie chen" [Lydia Maria Child] ALS to Ellis Gray Loring, March 7, 1850

postpone any permanent arrangement till the time
indicated by the dream has passed. It was the same
dream, which induced me to look over my letters, and
burn nearly all of them, when I was at N. Rochelle.
How hard it is for even the most sceptical mortals to keep
quite clear of superstition! For example, see what an
excitement the Rochester knockings are making, even
among sensible people; though I think there can be no
doubt that it will turn out to be an imposition, with
perhaps some aid from clairvoyance. I do not believe
that Emanuel Swedenborg comes in company with N.P.
Rogers, any more than he would come "with Turks, or
sharks, or any other furrinners," as old Peggotty says.
Then again, the bad spelling of some of the spirits is to
me a very suspicious circumstance. If they spell at all
in their present existence, one would expect their faculties
to be sufficiently expanded to receive an inspiration of
common school education; especially when they have been
several years in companionship with angels.

Speaking of such companionship,
Mr. and Mrs. Shaw invited me to go to the Philharmonic

{written perpendicularly in the right-hand margin, from top to bottom:}

Give my love to John and Augusta, and believe me affectionately yours while a pulse of my heart throbs,
Marie chen.