THE RANDALL FAMILY 3 J
upon acquaintance, and I am pleased not only with his good taste, but with a certain vigor of imagination which enables him to regard a subject, not only as it appeals to the senses or understanding, but in its more romantic aspects. I have no doubt that he is a man to be loved by such as well know him.
Yours truly,
J. W. Randall. Mr. Joseph Hale Abbot, Beverly, Mass.
��The reply to Dr. Ephraim Peabody's letter of Jan. 11, 1856, which has been already given above, was as fol- lows : —
Boston, Jan. 1856. My dear Sir,
Your kind expression of sympathy with these children of my thoughts touches me, and I cannot help saying a few words in answer. It was indeed much my wish that you might like these little word-pictures, even as you enjoy those which are painted with the brush or etched with the needle, and it is true I did half think that they might please you. Yet I dared not feel quite sure of it, since we often deceive ourselves in such things. So warm an expression of your satisfaction, therefore, is very gratifying to me. Wont in life past to work much in silence, sometimes against opposition, I have at times seemed to myself little dependent on sympathy ; yet for that very reason, perhaps, that of the intelligent is the more agreeable to me.
The poetic art seems to me in some things to have advantage over prose, less, perhaps, in pointing out the
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