Concord, Nov 30th 1862

My dear General Hitchcock,
    When, in that golden noon
I bade you farewell so long
ago at my door, I thought I
should not be able to
wait until you had left
town before expressing to you
my sense of infinite gain
from your presence.  Una,
Rose and I all stood for
a moment silent in the
hall, where you left us, and
then Una said “Mamma,
you look perfectly transfigured”!
and I replied “I am”- and
Rose ran to my arms to
show her ardent sympathy
with my entire content.  I
thought I would tell you
of it immediately–not because
you would feel any self-
gratulatory emotion from it,
but because it was a kind
of poetical justice to her
                        rendered

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The “anglico riso” softens both
my inner and outer face
whenever I recal[l] you–The
peace that passes all understanding
broods like a dove over the
waters of life at the memory
of your words and being-
I am sure that for all Eternity
I hold your hand, and that
wherever you are I can never
lose you, and so language-
seemed futile more and more
as time went on.  I was
convinced that you already
knew all I could say-and
that while I could communicate
every thing to you, that after
all silence was the most
effectual expression of the
unspeakable.  I liked to
plunge deeper and deeper
into the abysses of Light
without a sign, while it
seemed so near the open
visions that I was conscious
of your spiritual apprrehension.

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