Chelsea, 30 November, 1847
Dear Emerson, — Here is a word for you from Miss Fuller; I send you the Cover also, though I think there is little or nothing in that. It contained another little Note for Mazzini; who is wandering in foreign parts, on paths unknown to me at present. Pray send my regards to Miss Fuller, when you write.
We hear of you pretty often, and of your successes with the Northern populations. We hope for you in London again before long. — I am busy, if at all, altogether inarticulately in these days. My respect for silence, my distrust of Speech, seem to grow upon me. There is a time for both, says Solomon; but we, in our poor generation, have forgotten one of the “times.”
Here is a Mr. Forster* of Rawdon, or Bradford, in Yorkshire; our late host in the Autumn time; who expects and longs to be yours when you come into those parts.
I am busy with William Conqueror’s Domesday Book and with the commentaries of various blockheads on it: — Ah me!
All good be with you, and happy news from those dear to you.
Yours ever,
T. Carlyle
— * Now the Rt. Hon. W E. Forster, M.P. —