Norwich bulletin., 1922-06-02
Great Mems Love Letters
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE TO
 SOPHIE PEABODY.

Surely, Nathaniel Hawthorne was neither insincere nor thinking of pos terity when he finished one of his love letters with this poetic conceit, express-l ed in his best prose style:
 When we shall be endowed with spir- itual bodies, think they will be so con stituted that they will send thoughts and feelings any distance in no time at all and transfuse them warm and fresh into the consciousness of those we love- Oh, what happiness it would be at this moment if l could be con- scious of some purer feeling, some more delicate sentiment, some lovelier ian tasy than, could I be aware that you were thinking through my mind and feeling through my heartl Perhaps you possess this power already"
 This is true epistolary love-maklng- the sublimated essence of complimen- tary galantry, addressed to Sophia Peabody. who later became Mrs. Ma thaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne had at tained some literary distinction when he met the Peabody sisters, Elizabeth, the elder of the two, invited Hawthorne and his sister to spend an evening with her at her home in Salem She was friend of the sister, but had never met the au- thor and was anxious to know what character of man was the writer of The Gentle Boy, the reading of which had given her so much pleasure.
 When the Hawthornes called, Eliza beth was delighted with Nathaniel. and tried to prevail upon her sister, Sophia, who was an invalid, to come down and meet him. Sophia laughed, but refused the invitation. Hawthorne was so pleased with his visit that he promised to repeat it soon.
 He did so and this time Sophia came down and sat on the sofa in white wrapper" Hawthorne was charmed with her, and especially with her low, sweet voice. Whenever, after this MT. flaw thorne called at the house he generally saw Sophia, and a year after they met he wrote Sophia is a flower to be worn
 in no mans bosom. but was lent from
 heaven. to show the possibility of the l human soul"
 1 Hawthorne was evidently much ir love from the start, but it was not un
 til his thirty-ffth year that he became engaged, about two years after their ] first acquaintance. They were not mar
 ried until 1S42, three or nearly foul years after his engagement. ' Hawthorne's love letters to Sophi; are so full of fine sentiment, that in
 stead of printing one, only extracts vii
 be given from several of them in para graphs:
 q have received an invitation to 7 party, I will not go I intend to pas } that evening with you-that is in mus ing and dreaming of you. It seem strange that your protection should hay
 become absolutely necessary to such 2 great, rough, burly, broad-shouldere 7 parsonage as I! need your support a much as you need mine"
 "What letterl Never was so mue l beauty poured out of my heart before . and to read it over and over is like bath ing my brow in a fresh fountain an v drinking draughts that renew the If < within me. How can you say that :, have ever written anything beautiful, be ing yourself so potent to produce what r ever is loveliest?'
 But what a letter you wrote mel ]
 is like one angel writing to anothe
 angel. But, alas the letter has nis l. carried, and has been delivered to { i. most unworthy mortal"
 Dearest heart: Your letter to m
 sister was most beautiful sweet, gent
 and magnanimous such as no one bl you could have written. If they do nc g love you it mus bs because they hay
 where Henry Tyler of New London,
 were the case, should not dispair { l. your planting the seeds of hearts in the l-i bosom"
 7- The Hawthornes were most devote
 throughout their lives. MT. Hawthorn
 died on the morning of May 1s. 1s6 r and Mrs Hawthorne survived him seve i+ years. dying in London. February 2
 1871.