steps. I have no hope, unless that God will show me some way I do not know of now; but I do not wish to trouble you with more of this.
TO W. S.
Rome, Dec. 9, 1848. — As to Florence itself, I do not like it, with the exception of the galleries and churches, and Michel Angelo’s marbles. I do not like it, for the reason you do, because it seems like home. It seems a kind of Boston to me, — the same good and the same ill; I have had enough of both. But I have so many dear friends in Boston, that I must always wish to go there sometimes; and there are so many precious objects of study in Florence, that a stay of several months could not fail to be full of interest. Still, the spring must be the time to be in Florence; there are so many charming spots to visit in the environs, much nearer than those you go to in Rome, within scope of an afternoon’s drive. I saw them only when parched with sun and covered with dust, In the spring they must be very beautiful.
December, 1848. — I felt much what you wrote, “if it
were well with my heart.” How seldom it is that a mortal
is permitted to enjoy a paradisaical scene, unhaunted
by some painful vision from the past or the future! With
me, too, dark clouds of care and sorrow have sometimes
blotted out the sunshine. I have not lost from my side
an only sister, but have been severed from some visions
still so dear, they looked almost like hopes. The future
seems too difficult for me. I have been as happy as I
could, and I feel that this summer, as last, had I been
