To Miss Jane Norton.

Cambridge, July 4, 1867.

. . . The only effort I have made lately, of much account, is a long reply to Rev. F. E. Abbot’s letter, in which I have rather plainly spoken my mind on the practical bearings of our debate. I have not yet summoned the courage to copy it for

him. Perhaps when I do, I may send it first to you. I scribble (perhaps I ought to tell you) my more deliberate thoughts in pencil on scraps of paper; for I cannot think deliberately in ink. It is too much like the captious office of the recording angel, making indelible the spontaneities of the moment, rather than the sincere principles of a lifetime.