Your letterEditorial Note: See L07796. written Feb. 15th was not received till Tuesday of this week. The date of the postmark is the 20th, and as I am stopping in Yarmouth this winter, & in PortlandEditorial Note: Portland, Maine only occasionally, it laid in the Post Office till Tthis week. Today is the first opportunity I had for answering. I am sorry that I could not do so sooner, but my business & family cares prevent my getting much opportunity for writing. If I could have been of any service to you I would have taken steps to do so immediately on getting your letter, and yet I ought to have replied to your letter just as promptly, but I could not. I am sorry to hear of your misfortune, and hope that with courage and patience neither the prediction of the Dr. nor your own fears will prove true. & I think they wontCorrected:won't. That is my prediction. As to turning Dr. myself, & undertaking to fill [?] Unclear or illegible  Dr Q's place and carry on his work, it is not to be thought of for a minute. Can an infant do a strong man'sCorrected:strongman's work? Nor would I if I could. Dr Q. gave himself away to his patients. To be sure he did a great work, but what will it avail in fifty years from now, if his theory does not come out, & if he & his ideas passes away the things that were, to be forgotten? He did work some change in the minds of the people, which will grow with the developementCorrected:development & progress of the world. He helped to make them progress. They will progress f [?] Unclear or illegible aster for his having lived & done his work. So with Jesus. He had an effect which was lasting & still exists. But his great aim was a failure. He did not succeed, nor has Dr Q. succeeded in establishing the Science he aimed to do. The true way to establish it is, as I look at it, to lecture, & by a paper [?] Unclear or illegible  and make that the means, rather more than the curing, of to introducing e the Truth. To be sure, faith without works is deadJames 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? James 2:15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, James 2:16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. James 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? James 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? James 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. James 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. James 2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. , but Dr Q's works killed him, whereas, if he had spared himself from his curing, and given himself partly, & a considerably, to getting out his theory, he would then have, at least, come nearer success in his great ai [?] Unclear or illegible m than he did.

No I wouldnt Corrected: wouldn't cure if I could, not to make a practice of it, as Dr Q. did. Yet Mrs Patterson I wuld Corrected: would be glad to help you in your trouble. But I am not able to do it. My attention has not been given that way, & my occupation, nearly the whole employment of my time is of a nature such as to keep my mind from even the theory, much more the practice of it. I do not even help my wife out of her troubles, if she has serious ones, & of all in the world I could help her quickest & easiest, owing to the greater interchange of mind.

My wife has lately given birth to a son, and (stopping with her parents in Yth) and I have a good opportunity to know whether I could easily become a Dr. or not. But I am not even Dr. for them. How then could I cure those to whose minds I have little, or comparatively no access at all? But I would if I could, & be glad to. My forte is preaching & always was.

You say you have not, in your troubles, placed your intelligence in matter, & yet are slowly f [?] Unclear or illegible ailing. If you believe you are slowly failing, tnhen your intelligence is placed in matter. But if you can really place your intelligence outside of matter, then do so, and let the Devil take the himendmost or what he can get. Be assured he cant Corrected: can't get you, nor any part of you. Keep yourself intelligence, which is yourself, out of your matter, & the Devil or death wont Corrected: won't get for you, fo [?] Unclear or illegible r he is in matter, and that's what's the matter.