My pen always runs away, in writing to you; and a most unsteady, vilely bad pace it goes.

What would I not give to write simple English, without having to rewrite and rewrite every sentence.
LETTER 317.

TO J.D.HOOKER.

Friday [June 29th, 1845].
I have been an ungrateful dog for not having answered your letter sooner, but I have been so hard at work correcting proofs (317/1.

The second edition of the "Journal."), together with some unwellness, that I have not had one quarter of an hour to spare.