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                                                                                       Brunswick April 27th, 1845

Dear Brother

  I believe I shall not be able to thank you for my knowledge that you at Foxcroft, for you have taken no pains to let me sent to me, and moreover I received a letter from Milo, Apr. 25th, which mentions where you were etc. etc. but from their complaints, I gathered that you did not write more than once or twice oftener there than you have to me! I am afraid that you are not a very good hand to write letters to your brethren.
 I think that such Correspondence ought to be kept up. It is one most important method of keeping up, of preserving in all their freshness & fervor, of cultivating & strengthening, those feelings of friendship, fraternal affection & communion, which are certainly the best part of our poor human nature. The cultivation of the heart is no less important, than that of the mind. The affectionate interchange of thoughts & feelings, of joy & sorrow, of trials & pleasures, is the greatest, perhaps we might say almost the only source of all the happiness we have, which is purely sublunary. The pleasures of sense alone are and must ever be to the thinking mind - worthless- in comparison at least.

The others however could hardly be called of this world merely. They are so closely connected with those which take hold of another and a better, happier sphere. Excuse this involuntary episode. I began upon the advantages of letter writing especially when friends & brothers are necessarily far separated. Surely in such a subject, the mere expense, the postage, the paltry dimes, this world's drops, ought not to be considered, even though it were much more than it is. Even the intellectual advantage alone would much more than balance that. Besides postage comes down.

 I really want for the first thing that you should write me a full, great letter, about yourself, and all about Foxcroft.  You know I have lived there more than a year, and naturally feel interested there. My correspondents are there are not worth much, or not really ? I.G. Clark writes sometimes now, but you know, his letters are not much.