Daniel McFarland, , South Bend, Dec. 27th 1878. , , My dear friend Lysander Spooner, , , I have recd your kind letter of the 20th inst. It was just like you, my dear friend, to write to me and say to me what you did. I know you will believe me when I tell you that many and many a time it has been a deep desire of my heart to act toward you and some others in the manner you so generously and lovingly indicated your desire to act toward me. , , I presume you are not a little surprised to receive direct from me some proof that I am not yet quite dead. I will tell you how I came to enclose the newspaper strips to you. I happened to see in the "Banner of Light" a letter of yours on the character of Dr. Gardener. As old friends die off so rapidly, I felt , , PAGE 4, , eye once, and neither did any of the [...]. She gazed on [...] over their heads. The woman is incomprehensible to me. She is either insane or latterly [sic] inhuman or rather unhuman. , , My dear appreciative friend, I am astonished at myself when I think how much I have lived under the burden of suffering which I have earned during the past ten years. I have learned, Lysander, that a person suffers in this world from his virtues as well as from his vices, but there is a great difference between the power of evidence in the two cases. One is a sublime [sic] and purifying experience, while the other degrades and leads to worse than death. Conscious integrity in adversity and suffering is a sustaining friend. , , I have written you quite a long letter and have not told you one thousandth part of what I should if I were with you for one hour. , , I have read your pamphlet with much interest and so did others. I will keep you posted of what I am doing from time to time. , , Your friend, , , Daniel McFarland