Association is destined to do much for poor, suffering humanity--to
elevate, refine, redeem the race and restore the purity and love that
made the bowers of Eden so surpassingly beautiful. You, sir, and your
associates are pioneers in a noble reform. May the blessing of God
attend you.
I am anxious to be with you for various reasons. The first is: I have
two little daughters whom I wish to bring up amid healthful influences,
with healthful and untrammelled bodies, pure minds and all their young
affections and sympathies clustering around their hearts. I never wish
their minds to be under the influence of the god of this generation--
fashion--nor their hearts to become callous to the sufferings of their
fellows. I never wish them to regard labor as degrading, nor poverty as
a crime. Situated as I am I cannot rear them in health and purity, and,
therefore, I am anxious to remove them from the baneful influences that
surround them. Again: I look upon labor as a blessing, and feel that
every man and woman should spend some portion of each day in healthful
employment. It is absolutely necessary to health, and is also a source
of enjoyment, even in isolation; how much would that pleasure be
increased could I have several kindred spirits around me with whom I
could interchange thought, and whose feelings and desires flow in the
same channel as my own! O, sir! I must live, labor and _die_ in
Association.
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