I will thank you to write to me, informing me with how much ready cash,
with an income of $500 or $600 per year, I can be received. Mrs. Clarke
and myself will wish to engage daily in labor. We both labored in our
youth--we wish to resume it again.
Very respectfully,
John Clarke.
The following letter is in manuscript without date and is
_One of Mr. Ripley's Replies_.
Dear Sir:--It gives me the most sincere pleasure to reply to the
inquiries proposed in your favor of the 3d inst. I welcome the extended
and increasing interest which is manifested in our apparently humble
enterprise, as a proof that it is founded in nature and truth, and as a
cheering omen of its ultimate success. Like yourself, we are seekers of
universal truth. We worship only reality. We are striving to establish
a mode of life which shall combine the enchantments of poetry with the
facts of daily experience. This we believe can be done by a rigid
adherence to justice, by fidelity to human rights, by loving and
honoring man as man, and rejecting all arbitrary, factitious
distinctions.
We are not in the interest of any sect, party or coterie; we have faith
in the soul of man, in the universal soul of things, and trusting to
the might of a benignant Providence which is over all, we are here
sowing in weakness a seed which will be raised in power.
Pages:
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362