May 25 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frank N. Doubleday.

Y.M. This is too much! I think it is not right to jest about such things.

O.M. I am not jesting, I am merely reflecting a plain & simple truth—& without uncharitableness. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot. It is my belief that this position is not assailable.

Doubleday, please add the above pair of remarks after O.M.’s remark that he isn’t “hoisting” man up to the rat’s moral level [MTP]. Note: What Is Man?  using Y.M. and O.M. for Young Man and Old Man.

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

“The Raynor Cottage idea has fallen through. Miss Hobby was impossible in her old–maidish whims. Mr. Paine said he had worked with her for 8 years & never before knew what a damn fool she is. In her stenographic capacity she is excellent, but as a human companion she is impossible—a terror” [MTP TS 73].

May 25 ca. – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Charles J. Langdon.

The letters which the mail daily brings to me are of 6 kinds—6 definite & distinct kinds. The purport of each kind is always the same, my answer is always the same, & can always be answered in the same old form of words. We keep a stock of these forms written out & on hand, & I have nothing to do but sign them & mail them. There is a 7 kind; it does not come often, but we keep a form for it, too. That is the sarcastic kind. The form for that one is: “Tell th him to go to hell.” That is my form. Miss Lyon translates it into something more Christlike, & away it goes. When she read to me your closing remark about my agricultural abilities, I said, from the force of habit, “Tell him to go to hell.” But I take that back, seeing it’s you.

I am glad to hear the good news of your health. We are all well here, except myself, & enjoying this Paradise to the limit.

As executor I acknowledge receipt of your check for $137.50, & return you my thanks [MTP].