Do not suppose, because I have delayed writing to you, that I have forgotten you.—No, that will never be.—I often recall your visits to me, and your goodness.—I think profoundly of my friends—though I cannot write to them by the post office.—I write to them more to my satisfaction, through my poems.—
Tell Hector2 I thank him heartily for his invitation and letter—O it is not from any mind to slight him that I have not answered it, or accepted the friendly call.—I am so non–polite—so habitually wanting in my responses and ceremonies.—That is me—much that is bad, harsh, an undutiful person, a thriftless debtor, is me.—
I spent an evening with Mr. Arnold3 and Mrs. Price4 lately.—Mrs. Price and Helen5
had been out all day with the sewing machine, at Mr. Beecher's6—either Henry Ward's, or his father's. hun.00046.002_large.jpg They had done a
great day's work—as much, one of the Beecher ladies said, as a sempstress
could have got through with in six months.—Mrs. P and Helen had engagements
for a fortnight ahead, to go out among families and take the sewing
machine.—What a revolution this little piece of furniture is
producing.—Isn't it quite an encouragement.—
I got into quite a talk with Mr. Arnold about Mrs. Hatch.7—He says the pervading thought of her speeches is that first exists the spirituality of any thing, and that gives existence to things, the earth, plants, animals, men, women.—But that Andrew Jackson Davis8 puts matter as the subject of his homilies, and the primary source of all results—I suppose the soul among the rest.—Both are quite determined in their theories.—Perhaps when they know much more, both of them will be much less determined.—
A minister, Rev. Mr. Porter,9 was introduced to me this
morning,—a Dutch Reformed minister, and editor of the "Christian
Intelligencer," N.Y.—Would you believe it—he had been reading "Leaves of
Grass," and wanted more?—He said he hoped I retained
the true Reformed faith which I must have inherited from my mother's Dutch
ancestry.—I hun.00046.003_large.jpg not only assured him of my retaining faith in that sect, but that I had perfect
faith in all sects, and was not inclined to reject one single one—but believed
each to be about as far advanced as it could be, considering what had preceded
it—and moreover that every one was the needed representative of its truth—or of something needed as much as
truth.—I had quite a good hour with Mr. Porter—we grew friends—and
I am to go dine with the head man of the head congregation of Dutch Presbyterians in
Brooklyn, Eastern District!
I have seen Mrs. Walton10 once or twice since you left Brooklyn,—I dined there.—I feel great sympathy with her, on some accounts.—Certainly, she is not happy.—
Fowler & Wells11 are bad persons for me.—They
retard my book very much.—It is worse than ever.—I wish now to bring out
a third edition—I have now a hundred poems ready
(the last edition had thirty–two.)—and shall endeavor to make an
arrangement with some publisher here to take the plates hun.00046.004_large.jpg from F. & W. and make the
additions needed, and so bring out the third edition.—F. & W. are very
willing to give up the plates—they want the thing off their hands.—In
the forthcoming vol. I shall have, as I said, a hundred poems, and no other matter
but poems—(no letters to or from Emerson—no notices, or any thing of
that sort.)—I know well enough, that that must be
the true Leaves of Grass—I think it (the new vol.)
has an aspect of completeness, and makes its case clearer.—The old poems are
all retained.—The difference is in the new character given to the mass, by the
additions.—
Dear friend, I do not feel like fixing a day on which I will come and make my promised visit.—How it is I know not, but I hang back more and more from making visits even to those I have much happiness in being with.—
Mother12 is well—all are well.—Mother often speaks about you.—We shall all of us remember you always with more affection than you perhaps suppose.—Before I come to Philadelphia, I shall send you or Hector a line.—
Wishing Peace & Friendship Walt WhitmanCorrespondent:
Sarah Thorn
Tyndale (1792–1859) was an abolitionist from Philadelphia who met Walt
Whitman during Amos Bronson Alcott and Henry David Thoreau's visit to the Whitman home in November 1856.
For more information on Tyndale, see "Tyndale, Sarah Thorn [1792–1859]," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).