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I must first render you thanks for the box of books, as they have at last reached me in good condition—The delay in their arrival is unaccountable. But they are welcome, and will all be read in due time, and with sincere gratitude to the donor. Both your letters also reached me, and were cordially welcomed. I should have acknowledged them at date, only that for many weeks I have been disabled from writing & from any clerical work, by reason of a wound in the right hand, which is now better.

There is nothing new or noteworthy in my own affairs. I still remain in the Attorney General's office here—still enjoying good health. I keep fashioning & shaping my books at my leisure, & hope to put them in type the current year.

You speak of my prose preface to first "Leaves of Grass." I am unable to send it you, having not a copy left. It was written hastily while the first edition was being printed in 1855—I do not consider it of permanent value. I shall send you, (probably in the mail that follows this—certainly very soon,) a piece written some while since by me on "Democracy"—in which Mr. Carlyle's "shooting Niagara" is alluded to. I shall also send an article by an English lady, put in print here, that may interest you.

I am writing this at my desk in the Treasury building here, an immense pile, in which our office occupies rooms. From my large open window I have an extensive view of sky, Potomac river, hills & fields of Virginia, many, many miles. We are having a spell of that oppressive heat which so much falls upon us here.