Thank you very much for your kind note of 4th just received. My life is a slow but steady and wearing fight with the common ignorance and presumption which denies that our profession is an art and will not allow it the position of a trade. There is not a public work with which I have {been} connected & have left which is not being despoiled by men who have neither knowledge or interest in its purposes much less of the processes by which they are to be served. It all makes me sick and keeps me sick—though I have been rather better in health of late through a systematic cultivation of patience. I have often asked myself whether I could not do something to influence people in Providence to trust to you and sustain you. Is there anyone there you would like me to send a copy of the pamphlet to? I am nearly out but could spare one or two.

I heard of your great loss last summer through your sister—not however until long after it occurred. Otherwise I should have written to express the strong sympathy I felt. I was then, however, expecting soon to see you.