Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETTERS. 45
I offer mine because I attach any great value to it,
but it is a relief to my own mind to thank you for
what you have done for the oppressed, and to express
the pleasure, I hope profit, which I have received
from the various efforts of your mind.
I have been delighted to see in your i" Letters from
New York " such sure marks of a fresh, living, hopeful
spirit; to see that the flow of genial noble feeling has
been in no degree checked by the outward discourageements of life. The world's frowns can do us little
harm if they do not blight our spirits, and we are
under obligations to all who teach us, not in words,
but in life, that there is an inward power which can
withstand all the adverse forces of the world."
March 12, 1842.
MY DEAR FRIEND, - You see I reciprocate your
familiar and affectionate phrase, and I do it heartily.
There are, indeed, few people whom I address in this
way, for I fear to use language stronger than my
feelings, and I shrink so much from the appearance
of flattering words, that I not seldom smother affections that struggle for utterance. But I grow free as
I grow older. Age has no freezing influence, and the
inward fountain gushes out more naturally. To you
I ought to open my heart after what you have told
me of the good a loving, cheering word does you. 1
confess I had thought of you as raised more than the
most of us above the need of sympathy. I had heard
so often of your brave endurance of adversity, and
was conscious of having suffered so little myself for
truth and humanity, that I almost questioned my
right to send you encouraging words, and certainly
did not expect so affectionate a response. It shows