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

Sele[ctions from letters to 1her
own land, you, my dear Anne, with your husband, will pay me
a visit? I do hope it, and beg you to remember in kindness,
your Swedish friend and sister,
FREDERIKA BREMER.
STOCKHOLM, February 16, 1864.
Dearest Anne: Your good and interesting letter from New-York
has been to me a true treat: first, by its being from you and
bringing good news from you; second, for the many interesting
things of general import contained in it. Cheering and refreshing one, many things you tell about the regeneration of your people,-about its rising to manhood! Alas! that so bloody a baptism
was needed, and still seems needed for it! I need not tell you
with what intense interest I have followed, and do follow, all
phases of this American war, which certainly is one of the most
remarkable in modern, and perhaps also in ancient, history: next
to the religious war of "thirty years," which closed the middle
age and founded a new order of things in Church, State, and Society. I know of no war except the present one in America where
so great and so life-teeming principles are working for the future
of still unborn generations. And to have lived to see its probable
issue, its certain fruits, is a great privilege. Oh, how I should
wish to respond to your most kind invitation, your sweet words,
by coming once more to that great country of my hopes and fond
aspirations for human felicity; to sit down there with you and
yours, looking out over a pacified realm rising new-born and purified out of the bloody strife, and observing with you the signs of
the coming day; but that will hardly be! I feel old and weary,
and do not believe I have many years left to live, and those I must
devote to my country and to the work given me there in more
than one way. But my heart and mind will never be absent from
America. One of my last looks of love and blessing will be for
that country where I have lived so much, enjoyed, loved, and
learned so much; and on which still my fondest hopes for a better and more happy humanity do repose. I am delighted to hear
you say that you "begin to find that life can be too short," and
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