Complete Prose Works

Walt Whitman · Chapter 213 of 363

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Complete Prose Works

Reminiscence of Elias Hicks

June 8.—To-day a letter from Mrs. E. S. L., Detroit, accompanied in a little post-office roll by a rare old engraved head of Elias Hicks, (from a portrait in oil by Henry Inman, painted for J. V. S., must have been 60 years or more ago, in New York)—among the rest the following excerpt about E. H. in the letter:

  "I have listen'd to his preaching so often when a child, and sat with
  my mother at social gatherings where he was the centre, and every one
  so pleas'd and stirr'd by his conversation. I hear that you contemplate
  writing or speaking about him, and I wonder'd whether you had a picture
  of him. As I am the owner of two, I send you one."