AMOS LAWRENCE. "REV. WILLIAM SCORESBY, D.D., Torquay, Devonshire, Eng."
"MY DEAR FRIEND: This is a rainy day, which keeps me housed; and, to improve it in 'pursuit,' I have a bundle made up, of the size of a small 'haycock,' and directed to you by railroad, with a few lines enclosed for the amusement of the children. I have told A. and L. that they couldn't jump over it; but H. could, by having a clear course of two rods. Louis Dwight has spent a half-hour with me this morning, exhibiting and explaining his plan for the new Lunatic Asylum of the State, which I think is the best model I have ever seen, and is a decided improvement on all our old ones. The committee, of which Governor Briggs is chairman, will give it a careful consideration and comparison with Dr. Bell's, and perhaps Dr. Butler's and others; and, with such an amount of talent and experience, the new asylum will be the best, I trust, that there is on this side of the Atlantic. Louis Dwight is in fine spirits, and in full employ in his peculiar line. The new institution in New York for vagrant children will very likely be built on his plan. He is really doing his work most successfully, in classing and separating these young sinners, so that they may be reclaimed, and trained to become useful citizens; in that light, he is a public benefactor. * *
In a letter to a friend, written on Sunday, and within a few days of the preceding, Mr. Lawrence says, after describing one of his severe attacks:
"I am not doing wrong, I think, in consecrating a part of the day to you, being kept within doors by one of those kindly admonitions which speaks through the body, and tells me that my home here is no shelter from the storm. I had been unusually well for some weeks past, and it seemed to me that my days passed with a rapidity and joyousness that nothing short of the intercourse with the loved ones around me could have caused. What can be more emphatic, until my final summons? If my work is done, and well done, I should not dread the summons; pray that it may be, and that we may meet again after a brief separation. I am hoping to be safely housed by and by where cold and heat, splendid furniture, luxurious living, and handsome houses, and attendants, will all be thought of as they really merit."