I have been surprised—­but it is months ago—­by a letter from Lacy Garbett, the Architect, whom I do not know, but one of whose books, about “Design in Architecture,” I have always valued.  This letter, asking of me that Americans shall join Englishmen in a Petition to Parliament against pulling down Ancient Saxon buildings, is written in a way so wild as to suggest insanity, and I have not known how to answer it.  At my “Saturday Club” in Boston I sat at dinner by an English lord,—­whose name I have forgotten,—­from whom I tried to learn what laws Parliament had passed for the repairs of old religious Foundations, that could make them the victims of covetous Architects.  But he assured me there were none such, and that he himself was President of a Society in his own County for the protection of such buildings.  So that I am left entirely in the dark in regard to the fact and Garbett’s letter.  He claims to speak both for Ruskin and himself.

I grieve to hear no better account of your health than your last letter gives.  The only contradiction of it, namely, the power of your pen in this reproduction of thirty books,—­and such books,—­ is very important and very consoling to me.  A great work to be done is the best insurance, and I sleep quietly, notwithstanding these sad bulletins,—­believing that you cannot be spared.

Fare well, dear friend,
                  R.W.  Emerson

CLXXXIX.  Emerson to Carlyle

Concord, 4 September, 1871

My Dear Carlyle,—­I hope you will have returned safely from the Orkneys in time to let my son Edward W.E. see your face on his way through London to Germany, whither he goes to finish his medical studies,—­no, not finish, but prosecute.  Give him your blessing, and tell him what he should look for in his few days in London, and what in your Prussia.  He is a good youth, and we can spare him only for this necessity.  I should like well to accompany him as far as to your hearthstone, if only so I could persuade you that it is but a ten-days ride for you thence to mine,—­a little farther than the Orkneys, and the outskirts of land as good, and bigger.  I read gladly in your letters some relentings toward America,—­deeper ones in your dealing with Harvard College; and I know you could not see without interest the immense and varied blossoming of our possibilities here,—­of all nationalities, too, besides our own.  I have heard from Mrs. —–­ twice lately, who exults in your kindness to her.

Always affectionately, Yours,
                         R.W.  Emerson

CXC.  Emerson to Carlyle

Baltimore, Md., 5 January, 1872