University of Virginia Library

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I thank you for your kind letter which conveyed the pleasing
news of your having passed the always trying ordeal of a first
lecture, and of the bright prospects under which the session is
commencing. You must expect, for some time, often to fall short of
your idea of excellence in the Lecture room. Were it not so this
idea of yours would be much less exalted than I know it to be. But
occasional imperfections seen by yourself but perhaps not observed
by your class ought not to give you concern or inspire despondency.
They are part of the inevitable experience of all in your profession
who have the sensibility which is necessary to real excellence
in the end.

Accept my thanks for your attention to the matter of business
which is well arranged by a deposit in the Bank at Charlottesville.
When I return to Phil. I will draw for the amt. & send you
a receipt. The carpet is of trifling value & not worth the trouble
of selling. If not in your way you may let it stand where it is or
make what other disposition of it you please.

I expect to leave the field about the 23 inst. & will
spend a day or two in Phil.a, after which I will probably make a
geological visit to some Mesozoic localities in Va. While in the
city I will endeavour to procure such articles for your Mineral
department as may be necessary, & will write you thence on the
subject.

You will smile when I tell you that I begin now daily to
have a feeling as if the College bell were summoning me. Yet with
something like a surge of want for the absence of the receding
excitement of the Lecture room, I greatly enjoy the liberty I now
have to ramble when I choose among the rocks & by the streams of
this lovely region.

The familiar College scene is now before me & my heart
warms towards the kind friends & colleagues with whom I used annually
at this time to renew my intercourse. May blessings attend
them & the home in which I have dwelt & laboured with them for
seventeen years.

Please remember me affectionately to them all, but especially
to Dr. Harrison, whose true regard I have ever so deeply
valued, & to Mrs. H. & Maria & all the children.

Mrs. Rogers joins me in affectionate wishes to Mary & send
her best regards to you. Again urging you to be of good heart, I
remain