Emily Dickinson — Letter 319 9 June 1866 T. W. Higginson

                                                                                                Amherst Dear friend Please to thank the Lady. She is very gentle to care. I must omit Boston. Father prefers so. He likes me to travel with him but objects that I visit. Might I entrust you, as my Guest to the Amherst Inn? When I have seen you, to improve will be better pleasure because I shall know which are the mistakes. Your opinion gives me a serious feeling. I would like to be what you deem me. Thank you, I wish for Carlo.         Time is a test of trouble         But not a remedy -         If such it prove - it prove too         There was no malady. Still I have the Hill, my Gibraltar remnant. Nature, seems it to myself, plays without a friend. You mention Immortality. That is the Flood subject. I was told that the Bank was the safest place for a Finless mind. I explore but little since my mute Confederate, yet the "infinite Beauty" - of which you speak comes too near to seek.         To escape enchantment, one must always flee.         Paradise is of the option.         Whosoever will         Own in Eden notwithstanding         Adam, and Repeal.                                                                                                     Dickinson.