Letter from Lafcadio Hearn to Horace Elisha Scudder

Dear Mr. Scudder, - Excuse an after thoughtWould it not perhaps be questionable policy for me to appear to attach myself to any particular 'ism - circle? - would it not indicate, or seem to indicate a certain weakening of independence? Would not the appearance of a signed article by me in the Monist or in the Open Court at once set me down in the judgment of a certain class as affiliated with the ideas and professions of the circles represented by those periodicals? Would not the result of such a judgement tell against any small influence I might later be able to gain as an original thinker, - especially

in relation to my connection with the Atlantic, which, I take it, is above, or supposed to be above all 'isms? And would it not be better on the whole to keep the Nirvana paper for book-form only? - I have, of course, wandered in my time through a number of isms; and from 19 to 21 years old I used to contribute to the old Boston Investigator (!) But I must confess now that I have a horror of seeming to belong to any fixed form of opinions; and feel that my own change inevitably from year to year. They must, must they not? - to have any value even as a true reflection of personality. Ever faithfully Lefcadio Hearn Oct 14th [76 ?]