Your letter on the 15th has been a great treat to me; it rings true and deep, and the next best thing to having dear ones near is to receive expressions of their dearness.
Besides, I am all alone here, for but a few days, it is true, still the place seems dreary under present circumstances, therefore all you say is opportunely said.
For my own part I have always felt that the two most precious things in life are faith and love, and more and more the older that I grow. Ambition and achievement are a long way behind in my experience, in fact out of the running altogether. The disappointments are many and the prizes few, and by the time they are attained seem small.
The whole thing is vanity and vexation of spirit without faith and love.
Perhaps it is by way of compensation for having lost the former that the latter has been dealt to me in such full measure. I never knew anyone so well off in this respect....
Although I have been very much in the world I have not a single enemy, unless it be the ——, who have entirely dropped out of my life.
On the other hand, I do not know anyone who has so many friends, not merely acquaintances, but men and women who are devoted with an ardent affection....
Now, all this might sound very conceited to anyone who would not understand me as I know you will do. But I have been thinking the matter over in my solitude, and candidly I am wholly unable to account for it. Still, to be further candid, even love is not capable of becoming to me any compensation for the loss of faith....
But it is time for me to go to bed and shut up this egotistic screed to post by to-morrow's mail.