Dato: 4. april 1851
Fra: Richard Bentley   Til: H.C. Andersen
Sprog: engelsk.

New Burlington Street. April 4, 1851.

My dear Friend,

I have just received your kind letter of the 23rd ult. Indeed, I sympathize very sincerely in the grief you experience on the removal of two of your valued and kind friends. These are indeed the most painful passages of our lives! In the case, however, at least of Hans Christian Ørsted he has left a name which Denmark will not readily suffer to perish. I too, my friend, suffer affliction for me, as well as all my family, in the loss of one whom we all tenderly loved - and one whom you met at Sevenoaks, our aged mother! With your usual kindness you gratified her by presenting her with some verses in your own autograph. This she greatly prized. So that you see I am in the mood to feel the more sensibly the calamity which has befallen you. But, my friend, as our almost divine Shakspear hath it.

There is a soul of goodness even in things evil,
Would men observingly distil it out.

and the sadness of such moments purifies the heart, and fits us better for a happy hereafter. For every friend you lose, may you find tbree! as your own worth and merits deserve.

On reflexion I have thought it best to call your new work Pictures of Sweden as being the best understood by an English reader. I shall send you the earliest copy I ean get ready of your book.

Yours with sincere attachment,

Richard Bentley.

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