'I have been obliged to give up exertion again, but hope soon to be
able to call and make the acquaintance of your daughters. In case you
wish to consult H. Martineau's pamphlets, I send more copies. Do not
think of answering: I have occupied too much of your time in reading.

'Yours affectionately,

'A. I. NOEL BYRON.'

As soon as a copy of 'Dred' was through the press, I sent it to her,
saying that I had been reproved by some excellent people for representing
too faithfully the profane language of some of the wicked characters. To
this she sent the following reply:--

'Your book, dear Mrs. Stowe, is of the little leaven kind, and must
prove a great moral force; perhaps not manifestly so much as secretly.
And yet I can hardly conceive so much power without immediate and
sensible effects: only there will be a strong disposition to resist on
the part of all hollow-hearted professors of religion, whose
heathenisms you so unsparingly expose. They have a class feeling like
others.

'To the young, and to those who do not reflect much on what is offered
to their belief, you will do great good by showing how spiritual food
is often adulterated. The bread from heaven is in the same case as
bakers' bread.

'If there is truth in what I heard Lord Byron say, that works of
fiction live only by the amount of truth which they contain, your
story is sure of a long life. Of the few critiques I have seen, the