Memoirs of Anne C.L. Botta,: written by her friends. With selections from her correspondence and from her writings in prose and poetry.

!electtons from lecr letters
than any I have seen of you. The other which you
promise I shall hope you will bring when you make
to me the long-expected visit. Now, I am afraid if I
say anything about this visit you will think me importunate, and perhaps I am. But life seems to me so
short, the terminus so near at hand, great and noble
souls so rare, that I would crowd into this remnant
of existence that is left, all the beautiful experiences
that I can lay hold of. I have heard the admonition
of the poet:
To take in sail,Contract thy firmament
To compass of a tent;
Economize the failing riveir;
Leave the many, and hold the few;
Soften the fall with wary foot,
and I am seeking only to carry out his thoughts. Let
me say, then, once for all, that whenever the curtain
of my " tent" is lifted for you to enter, there comes
and always will come with you the most serene and
beautiful influences. And so you will not wonder
that I always wish you to come.
I know well how little there is in this great city
with its too material life to attract you from your
home and your study, and how little I have to offer
you: only the consciousness that I have aspired
without attaining. But if, as some one says, "our
despair is the measure of our aspirations," mine have
been great indeed.
A. C. L. B.
297