The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-03-02

Rev. DR.. John H. Rice. One of them we pub
lshed The other appears below-Eps CEN
PRES.
BALTIMORE, Sept. 22nd, 1929
My Dear Sw,-Is it not hard that
should have taken the pains to write you
a letter of three sheets, and that it should
have been misscarried. Yet. such it
seems is the fact. The very first leisure
L could command after receiving your
last, / sat down con aneore and wrote you
such a letter but being three sheets, and,
In my own modest opinion, not worth the
postage, put it under an envelope to
Mr.. Cabell, and sent Omar down to the
Richmond steamboat to find convey
ance for it. He protests that he gave it
to the captain of the aforesaid boat, who
was under promise to send it to the post
Office in Richmond !; but Cabell writes
that 1t has not arrived-we can't hear
hair or hide of it-and all this time
while was laying the fattering JUNCTION
to my soul that you were reading my let
ter with the same spirit that its author
wrote, behold you have been applying
to me, suppose, all sorts of encomiastic
epithets. as the vilest of correspondents
and most worthless of eudo-frends,
ETC., etc., etc. Such are the miseries of
human life-one comfort is that there was
no treasure in the letter-and so let the
finder or the plunderer make the most
OF his treasure-t rove. I desire, however,
that you will do me justice, and give me
credit for having done my best to for
ward you the letter. You would not
have thanked me, think, to send it to
you by mail, so let it go, and hereafter l
will contine myself within postage limits
What L said to you in that letter | can
not recall, and if 1 could, it would not do
to say it all over again, for then l should
be IN the same predicament about post
age; but | know that thanked you most
sincerely for your letter, and told you,
with equal sincerity, how much we loved
you and missed you and Mrs. Rice when
you lett us. Laura returned to us not
long after you passed Richmond, and
has since her arrival given us another fine
grand-daugh ter-she and the child both
doing well. Elizabeth Golfer is with US,
and Mrs. Elzey, from Washington, one of
our nearest and best neighbors there, so
that my folks feel themselves at home
again. with the aid of these old friends.
AS for me, 1 am riding, walking, writing,
reading, eating, and sleeping. The only
material change in my course of action
being that ride every fair morning ten
or twelve miles before breakfast, under
which process my cheeks are blooming
Tor the first time in my life-hitherto
they have borne fruit Il. e., beard) with
out blossoms-but now they are blossom
ing like the wilderness. My life is much
less laborious than it used to be in Wash
lngton, and yet l hope it will be quite as
profitable, or if a little less so, shall
have more comfort. | am not obliged to
be so necessarily delving at law books as
used to be, but can vary little in my
reading. Apropos, the other morning
while l was waiting for some water to
shave, | took up Sheridan on Elocution,
which have always had about the house
but never read, and there saw a state
ment OF pretty nsarly the same question
which DR.. Miller proposed to us in Bos-
ton, changing the bar to the theatre The
Bishop of London asked Betterton "what
could be the reason that whole audiences
should be moved to tears and have all
sorts Of passions excited, at the represen-
tation OF some story on the stage, which
they know to be feigned, and in the event
OF which they were not at all concerned
800" Wv D"htO PCloOho SuOulu SlG SO
utterly unmoved at discourses from the
pulpit upon subjects of the utmost impor-
lance to them, relative not only to their
temporal but also their eternal interests?"
To which the comedian made the follow
ing memorable reply: "My Lord, it
is because 10e are in earnest" l under
stand from Mr.. Nevin there is version
OF the same story in which Garrick, in
lieu of Betterton is the respondent, and
IN which the point of the answer is weak
ened by being drawn out, as Lucan or
somebody else has weakened by expound-
ing Caesars famous "Ueni, vidi, vici. There
may be some truth in Betterton' S answer,
but suspect there is more piquency than
truth. Our tears at tragedy cost us
nothing, they REQUIRE us to give up no
sensual pleasure-religion requires us to
give up all, hinc illce lacrymde-is it not
soI We are willing listeners in the one
case, and our sensibility is even graceful,
and fatters our vanity; but in the other,
eve are unwilling listeners, and are "men
carried against our will" In proof that
our interest has great deal to do with
our sympathies, it is an old remark that
while we weep over fictitious distress.
where tears only are asked of us, we are
L