
I recd your card yesterday, & also the English paper. This morning Doctor Bucke sends me
Williams letter. It makes me groan in spirit to think of Williams condition. But
he evidently exagerates exaggerates
it somewhat,
for this letter shows streaks of the old fire. 'Tis a pity he sits down & lets this thing
creep over him. He could do much to fight it off, or keep it at bay, if he would make the
effort you have made, or if he would take a sea voyage. I think I must go to W. this
winter & see him. I have some notion of going south to get a glimpse of the
tropics.
I like your Lippincott paper; it is very dignified &
impressive, & contains many very effective sentences. I am so glad you are
writing again. My own health is pretty good. I think I have been much benefited the past fall by
drinking vichy water. It has reduced my weight about 10 per cent. My belly has gone
away as if I had been confined. It might be good for you. It is good for those who
make too much blood & fat. It reduces & thins the blood, &, with me, it
corrects the too much uric acid. I am eating but two meals a day, the last at 2 1/2 p.m. I sleep much better for it.
The Quarterly Review article to which O'C. refers I have read. It is very fine, many strong & penetrating things
said about you. I should like to know who wrote it. It is in the same number that
poor Gosse gets such a terrible cutting up. The New Zealanders
book I had not heard of.
Your book will doubtless have a checkered career in the future as it has had in the past, but I have no more doubt that it is one of the few immortal books than I have of my own existence. The world can never long pass it by. If it suffers centuries of eclipse & neglect it is bound to come up again.
Study into the causes of your bad spells & I believe you may master them, or mitigate them. The bowells are the seat of the difficulty with you, I believe. Dr Bucke says he is well, & lecturing on insanity to medical students. I enclose O'C.'s letter.
With much love J Burroughs.