VI.
But a truer impression of what John Witt Randall was than can be got from any statements of mine will be derived from his own words. His letters (he had few correspondents and did not write frequently even to me) reveal his character as nothing else can. Almost all I have are addressed to myself, and every sentence, so peculiar and original is the style, is like a photograph of him. As I must use these or none, I begin with the first he ever wrote to me — those between 1864 and 1876 are for the present hopelessly mislaid, though they can hardly be lost.
Boston, May 31st, 1852. Dear Frank,
I remember that you said at Stow that, of all the books which you wished to get with your Lawrence prize money, Bryant's Poems stood among the first. Now, as this author was the delight of my childhood and one whose best pieces I had by heart when twelve years old, I have a strong wish to connect myself in your fancy with my favorite poet, feeling sure that you will accept so trifling a tribute to that uncommon affection which you are pleased so constantly to lavish upon me.
Another use might easily occur to my mind as one you may find for these poems, for, as they are emblems of a severe purity of imagination, so can no one read them without becoming the better for them ; and as such were they the delight of my earliest youth. But, perhaps, my sensibility may have become less keen ; and, as we do not
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