
I am glad that you have lived long enough to know that Leaves of Grass will live forever,—long enough to know that your life has been a
success—that you have sown with brave and generous hands the
deeds of liberty—and love. This is enough, and this is a radiance that even the darkness
of death cannot extinguish.
Maybe the end of the journey is the best of all, and maybe the end of this is the beginnning of another
and maybe the beginning of that is better than the ending of this.
But however and whatever the fact may be, you have lightened the journey here for millions of your fellow-men.
In the great desert you have dug wells
and you have planted palms. As long as water and shade are welcome to the faint and
weary your memory will live,—
Wishing you many, many, days of health and happiness—and with a heart full of love
I Remain Yours always R. G. Ingersoll
