_New York_, March 4th, 1842
Dearest, I can find only this torn sheet of paper, on which to scribble thee a bulletin. We are arrived safely; but I am very homesick for thee--otherwise well and in good spirits. I love thee infinitely much. Belovedest, I know not whether the Colonel and I will leave this city on Monday or Tuesday, but if thou hast not already written, it will be to[o] late to direct a letter hither. In that case, best wife, write to Albany--whence I shall write to thee. The steam-engine kept me awake last night; but I cared not, for I was thinking about thee.
I am exceedingly well.
Dost thou love me?
Thine ownest
HUSBAND.
Miss Sophia A. Peabody, Care of Dr. N. Peabody, Boston, Ma.s.s.
TO MISS PEABODY
_Albany_, March 10th, 1842
Mine own Heart, I arrived here early this morning, by the steamboat; and thou mayst be well a.s.sured that I lost no time in going to the Post Office; and never did even a letter from thee so thrill my heart as this. There is no expressing what I feel; and so I will not try--especially now when I am compelled to write in a bar-room with people talking and drinking around me. But I love thee a thousand infinities more than ever.
Most dear, I have come hither to see Mr. O"Sullivan, with whom I have relations of business as well as friendship, all which thou shalt know, if thou thinkest them worth enquiring about. The good colonel is with me; but is going about a hundred miles into the interior, tomorrow. In the meantime I shall remain here; but thou wilt see me again on Tuesday evening. How is it possible to wait so long? It is not possible--yet I have much to talk of with O"Sullivan; and this will be the longest absence that we shall be compelled to endure, before the time when thou shalt be the companion of all my journeys.
Truest wife, it is possible that the cars may not arrive in Boston till late in the evening; but I have good hope to be with thee by six o"clock, or a little after, on Tuesday. G.o.d bless us.
THINE OWNEST.
Miss Sophia A. Peabody, Care of Dr. N. Peabody, Boston, Ma.s.s.
_Salem_, Wednesday, April 5th, 1842
_My Dear,_
It was thy husband"s intention to spend all his leisure time, here at home, in sketching out a tale; but my spirit demands communion with thine so earnestly, that I must needs write to thee, if all the affairs in the world were pressing on me at once. My breast is full of thee; thou art throbbing throughout all my veins. Never, it seems to me, did I know what love was, before. And yet I am not satisfied to let that sentence pa.s.s; for it would do wrong to the blissful and holy time that we have already enjoyed together. But our hearts are new-created for one another daily, and they enter upon existence with such up-springing rapture as if nothing had ever existed before--as if, at this very _now_, the physical and spiritual world were but first discovered, and by ourselves only. This is Eternity--thus will every moment of forever-and-ever be the first moment of life, and no weariness can gather upon us from the past.
It is a bliss which I never wish to enjoy, when I can attain that of thy presence; but it is nevertheless a fact, that there is a bliss even in being absent from thee. This yearning that disturbs my very breath--this earnest stretching out of my soul towards thee--this voice of my heart, calling for thee out of its depths, and complaining that thou art not instantly given to it--all these are a joy; for they make me know how entirely our beings have blended into one another.
After all, these pangs are but symptoms of the completeness of our spiritual union--the effort of the outward to respond to the inward.
Dearest, I do not express myself clearly on this matter; but what need?--wilt not thou know better what I mean than words could tell thee? Dost not thou too rejoice in everything that gives thee a more vivid consciousness that we are one?--even if it have something like pain in it. The desire of my soul is to know thee continually, and to know that thou art mine; and absence, as well as presence, gives me this knowledge--and as long as I have it, I live. It is, indeed, impossible for us ever to be really absent from one another; the only absence, for those who love, is estrangement or forgetfulness--and we can never know what those words mean. Oh, dear me, my mind writes nonsense, because it is an insufficient interpreter for my heart.
... Most beloved, I am thinking at this moment of thy dearest nose!
Thou canst not know how infinitely better I know and love Sophie Hawthorne, since she has yielded up that fortress. And, in requital, I yield my whole self up to her, and kiss her beloved foot, and acknowledge her for my queen and liege-lady forever more. Come into my heart, dearest; for I am about to close my letter. Hitherto, I have kept thee at arms" length; because the very act of writing necessarily supposes that thou art apart from me; but now I throw down the pen, in order that thou mayst be the closer to me.
Thine ownest Husband,
NATH. HAWTHORNE.
Miss Sophia A. Peabody, Care of Dr. N. Peabody, Boston, Ma.s.s.
TO MISS PEABODY
54 Pinckney St., Monday,
11 o"clock A.M. [1842]
_Most dear love,_
I have been caught by a personage who has been in search of me for two or three days, and shall be compelled to devote this unfortunate evening to him, instead of to my Dove. Dost thou regret it?--so does thy poor husband, who loves thee infinitely, and needs thee continually. Art thou well to-day very dearest? How naughty was I, last night, to contend against thy magnetic influence, and turn it against thyself! I will not do so again. My head has been in pain for thine--at least my heart has. Thou wast very sweet and lovely, last night--so art thou always.
Belovedest, thou knowest not how I yearn for thee--how I long and pray for the time when we may be together without disturbance--when absence shall be a rare exception to our daily life. My heart will blossom like a rose, when it can be always under thy daily influence--when the dew of thy love will be falling upon it, every moment.
Most sweet, lest I should not be able to avoid another engagement for tomorrow evening, I think it best for me to come in the afternoon--shortly after two o"clock, on Tuesday. Canst thou devote so much of thy precious day to my unworthiness? Unless I hear from thee, I shall come. I love thee. I love thee.
Dearest, I kiss thee with my whole spirit.
Thy husband,
THEODORE DE L"AUBEPINE.
Miss Sophia A. Peabody, Care of Dr. N. Peabody, Boston, Ma.s.s.
TO MISS PEABODY
54 Pinckney St., May 19th [1842]
_My Ownest_,
Mr. Hillard, this morning, put into my hands the enclosed paragraph from the Philadelphia Sat.u.r.day Courier. It is to be hoped that the penny papers of this city will copy an item of so much public importance.
Canst thou tell me whether the "Miss Peabody" here mentioned, is Miss Mary or Miss Elizabeth Peabody?
THINE OWNEST.
P.S. Please to present my congratulations to the "accomplished Miss Peabody." But I shall call, this evening, and present them in person.
Miss Sophia A. Peabody, 13 West-street, Boston.