Ever faithfully,
Lafcadio Hearn.
TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK
Kumamoto, Spring, 1894.
Dear Hendrick,— ... Are you reading the Atlantic at all? There is a wonderful story by Mrs. Deland, “Philip and his Wife.” Philip’s wife makes me think always of E. B.
The problem of merely being able to live. What a plague it is! And the pain of life isn’t hunger, isn’t want, isn’t cold, isn’t sickness, isn’t physical misery of any kind: it is simply moral pain caused by the damnable meanness of those who try to injure others for their own personal benefit or interest. That is really all the pain of the struggle of life.
Ever faithfully,
Lafcadio Hearn.