as dear to me as my life. I yet hope that a time may be per mitted me with those whom God has given me to bless my declining years. I returned from Washington last Tuesday, and found all as usual. Your aunt Lucie, who went up yesterday, will give you all particulars. * * * * * ** I send you and John and the dear baby, Charlotte and the beloved boys, each and all a Christmas greeting from your mother and myself, Samuel and Lilla. Upon this holy festival, may we all experience renewed interchanges of affection: and cheer and console each other along the chequered pathway of life. May you be given strength from above to rear that precious bird of domestic hope, in which we all feel so much pride and solicitude, to be a light in the family circle, and an ornament to society. Your affectionate father, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MISS KNAPP. LILLA'S, December 24, 1865. MY DEAR ELIZA-My argument at Washington was closed last Monday, and was characterized by the papers in advance as "powerful," in which opinion, it is needless to say, I concurred; returned here on Tuesday, and found your letter, congratulating yourself that it would be pretty sure to find me at this home. I found all here as usual, your aunt Lucie's eyes having improved. She went up to B. yesterday. This is a rainy, snowy, uncomfortable morning, and I shall make the day one of physical and spiritual rest. To-morrow will be Christmas! I have written you how little I enjoy holidays, because of the excesses usually practised. The day is more tolerable in the country, where there is some sincerity; but I am too close an observer to feel much sympathy with what I see going on in this great Babel. There is nothing on earth that cannot be purchased here, most of it, to be sure, far above its value. Wealth and want, dinners and debaucheries, religion and rum, splendor and starvation, cards and coffins, music and moanings are all strangely jumbled together. The poor shivering mendicant craving a crust greets you at every corner, and mourning goods are so abundant that you can griere five thou sand dollars' worth in a single outfit. So goes the world—such is life in a great sympathizing city. I thank God that enough of my life was spent in the country-a new country too-to have learned how beautiful is nature, and that "God made the country, and man made the town.” May this be to you, my dear Eliza, a happy rather than a merry Christmas-full of consolation and rational enjoyment: and also to Melissa and Charlie. May He who guards us in all our out-goings and in-comings, shield, bless and protect you all. Your affectionate uncle, D. S. DICKINSON MR. DICKINSON TO STEVIE AND AUBIE DICKINSON. NEW YORK, December 25, 1865. MY DEAR BOYs-A very happy and joyous Christmas to each of you and all the loved ones at the Orchard. May God bless you, and guide you in the path which leads to happiness and honor. I have but a moment to write, as we are just going out to church. Much love and greeting to your mamma, sister, John and Dickie. Your affectionate father, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MISS KNAPP. 129 EAST THIRTY-FOURTH STREET, MY DEAR ELIZA-The last pulsations of this dear old year are now throbbing, and soon it will be gathered with the things that were. What a mighty chapter in human pilgrimage has it opened and closed forever! How many have been added to the busy throng of life, some to be loved by the gods, and die early, some to live to hopeful and blooming youth, and then leave behind the gay company of life's unclouded morning, and lie down in death; some to enjoy life's meridian, some to be stained with crime, some to "pine in want and dungeon's gloom," some to be withered with dreary age, but all wending their way to judgment. How many, alas, during this eventful year have found repose in that sleep which knows no waking. How many have gone down with violence and butchery to bloody and unknown graves; and how many cry out, with the Patriarch, "me have ye bereaved of my children:" but the just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart. The New Year will be ushered in with dance and song, and the sackbut, psaltery and harp. Old men and young, maidens and children, will hail it with gladness, and many welcome it as a deliverer; and yet, to me, it is an occasion of deep solemnity. How merciful it is that "Heaven to all creatures hides the book of fate," for who could look in upon its dark and mournful pages, and live? This morning opened like the journey of life,-full of bright hope and golden promise; ere noonday dark clouds gathered, and its evening will be stormy and tempestuous, with no friendly sun to gild the distant hill-tops! The new morning will open upon life and death, wealth and want, all shades of morals,—and the bells ring, as Ralph Nickleby said, for the godly, "who are godly, because not found out!" but all, the good, the bad, the rich, the poor, the high, the low, are hurrying along together to repose again in that peaceful bosom from which they were withdrawn, where "there is rest for the weary." Like the dove, they will find that, after coursing over the desolation of life's ocean, there is no rest for the sole of the foot; and will return fluttering at the windows of the ark for admission. This existence, with its hopes and fears, its joys and sorrows, its smiles and tears, is a problem which I know not how to solve; but there is a secret something, independent of revelation, which "intimates eternity to man." When we go hence, how small a ripple shall we occasion on the surface of society. A few near and dear will mourn us, but the decree will go on, the spring will blossom, the evening will close around, the birds usher in the morning; and it will be said of us, "there lived a man." But God bless you, my beloved niece. Your aunt and Lilla join me in love and kind wishes to you all, and hope for your health and happiness; and such is the prayer of your affectionate uncle, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO REV. Z. PADDOCK. NEW YORK, January 29, 1866. REVERED AND Dear Sir-Your kind and cordial invitation extended me to address the Broome County Bible Society at Binghamton on the 30th inst., was duly received, and my final answer has been delayed to this, the latest moment that it could reach you seasonably, in the hope that by some changeful circumstance I might be relieved for a day or two from official service here, and permitted to meet you in the pleasing relation your partiality so generously assigned me; for I indulge an anxious desire to commune with my friends and neighbors upon an occasion which must be replete with sacred interest, and full of admonition and instruction. But my engagements are, for the present, incessant and imperative, and I can only bid you God-speed in this great and good work, by this hasty and meagre note. As a people, we have just emerged from clouds and darkness to light and sunshine. In other days we had “found our fellow guilty of a skin not colored like our own," and, in disregard of the holy precepts of the Gospel, we bound him in moral and material fetters, and sold him and his wife and children into servitude. Africa, like a bereaved mother, stretched out her sable, supplicating arms to heaven, and it pleased our beneficent Father, for this deep transgression, to visit us in judgment with the terrible scourge of intestine war. Alas, how are its desolations, its want and woe, marked by bloody foot-prints along its dark and devious pathway. But in the rich plentitude of divine mercy, rebellion has been exterminated, and the olive wand of peace again waves over us. Let us, then, build up the waste places within our borders, and again be brethren of a common tie; seek to reclaim the erring and to console the stricken and the abject; to dry up the mourner's tears, and to comfort the widow and the fatherless by a wide dissemination of the word of life, which sends forth from its exhaustless fountain streams which shall gladden the desert and cause the desolate domains of humanity to bud and blossom like the rose, which shall send light and hope as well to the cell of the captive as to the palace of the lofty, and tell that "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." With prayers for the success of the heaven-born mission in which the Association over which you preside is engaged, in the hope of a blessed immortality and in the spirit of Christian love, I am Your affectionate brother, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO D. S. DICKINSON, JR. NEW YORK, February 1, 1866. MY DEAR STEVIE-You can scarcely imagine how much we have all been pleased with your visit, and how much we regret the necessity of your leaving for home so soon; but the loved ones there wish to see you, and it is doubtless best you should return. We are proud of your good appearance and address, but much more proud of your good behavior, and your integ rity and upright conduct. You are soon coming to be a man. We are full of anxious solicitude for your welfare, and daily pray heaven for your safety and protection. Go on, my beloved son, in the path of honor and duty; be an example and guide to your little brother, and we shall all love you more and more, and God will smile on you and bless you. Now, the most you can do is to take good care of yourself—your moral and natural health-improve your mind by reading what is consistent with the condition of your eyes; by conversation with the good and intelligent, and by reflection and self-examination. At no distant day it will be important for you to choose some useful calling for life, and that should, even now, engage your attention. With hope and love known only to a parent, I am D. S. DICKINSON. |