3

ober. Then he will tie up for the winter.

I am greatly interested in your poetry - for I cannot but think than an intel-
ligent, reading of it will tend to develop you all round. I would like you for
instance to compare the following sonnets 9, 18, 217 which have all the same
motive, and are in my judgment pitched upon a false key, because a half truth the
impermanence of the deepest love between man and woman. Study then, so as fully
to apprehend their meaning, and then contrast them with two ^three^ others 57, 190, 247
whose theme is fidelity and constancy. See which rings truest to your truest self.
Compare with these again in the Golden Treasury, 194; and again the words on the
enclosed slip, written by an English lady over two hundred years ago to her husband,
a woman who was mother to the most charming woman of her generation and who
had been twenty years married when she wrote. To my mind, despite the 20
years of married life it is the sweetest love letter I ever read. Where I am
truth lie with the first three - exquisite as they are - or with the sentiment that
inspired the others. I have been very much struck with the way study upon
this volume of Sonnets repay - for in truth it is not the new things that
feed the soul, but those which often reading has made familiar friends

Tell mamma that I have read and dispatched the proofs of the article for
the Atlantic and I find that between you you have avoided any mistakes. I
had to make more than my usual corrections, due I think to the disturbance
amid which I wrote. Home is well forward I hope I may finish this
week before coming off the list or reaching the distractions of race week
as Cowes. With dearest love for our sweet mamma and very much
for yourself and Nell and Lyle

Your dearest father
A. T. Mahan