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In reference to my being here or there or yonder (with Tr. Soc
Bureau, or Bank) I have many things to say.

So go back a little—You know that in the
ministry my health failed under overmuch brain
pressure. I saw it & you did, and a desperate
rush was made—first to travel—then the Custom House,
then Tract Soc, all relieving me in a measure. The
latter as much as any thing until the struggle of
controversy began to be very severely felt in the same
direction. The war came & I saw two things
1^st that I could at once widen & popularize the
work of the American Tract Soc of Boston, and 2^d.
that it would give me the outdoor physical exercise
for which I was suffering—I will not deny that
my Country & the spiritual interests of Soldiers had their
wright with me. The result was, that not-
-withstanding exposure, disease—malaria & I may
almost say a thousand forms of death on every side
I came back better than I went & at the
present moment I have a general soundness of
constitution beyond what for the last 25 years I
had reason to expect. Had I struggled to
remain in the ministry I should, in all prob-
-ability, long ere this ^have^ been in my grave, as a hope-
-less & helpless invalid. But you say
"The Tract Soc keeps you in the ministry" I shall
^probably stay in^ the ministry, so far as I have ability & strength to fill it.
Although nothing so taxes me as even my occasional