My Dear Sir,--I received your letter of the 3d of February on the
20th instant, and am sorry that hitherto we have not been able to
command a more mercantile promptitude in the transmission of
these light sheets. If desire of a letter before it arrived, or
gladness when it came, could speed its journey, I should have it
the day it was written. But, being come, it makes me sad and
glad by turns. I admire at the alleged state of your English
reading public without comprehending it, and with a hoping
scepticism touching the facts. I hear my Prophet deplore, as his
predecessors did, the deaf ear and the gross heart of his people,
and threaten to shut his lips; but, happily, this he cannot do,
any more than could they. The word of the Lord _will_ be spoken.
But I shall not much grieve that the English people and you are
not of the same mind if that apathy or antipathy can by any means
be the occasion of your visiting America. The hope of this is so
pleasant to me, that I have thought of little else for the week
past, and having conferred with some friends on the matter, I
shall try, in obedience to your request, to give you a statement
of our capabilities, without indulging my penchant for the
favorable side. Your picture of America is faithful enough: yet
Boston contains some genuine taste for literature, and a good
deal of traditional reverence for it. For a few years past, we
have had, every winter, several courses of lectures, scientific,
political, miscellaneous, and even some purely literary, which
were well attended. Some lectures on Shakespeare were crowded;
and even I found much indulgence in reading, last winter, some
Biographical Lectures, which were meant for theories or portraits
of Luther, Michelangelo, Milton, George Fox, Burke. These
courses are really given under the auspices of Societies, as
"Natural History Society," "Mechanics' Institutes," "Diffusion of