LETTERS FROM ABROAD
unfortunately could not assure her that you were careful of your health.
Invitations are pouring in from the Continental countries, and I feel sure that a hearty welcome is awaiting me in these places. When I am weary and feel a longing to go back to my garden of prickly shrubs, it gives me strength to think that the migratory flock of my thoughts have found their nests in these shores, and with genuine love and wonder these enormously busy people have listened to a voice from the distant East.
This is a constant surprise to me. However, there is no question that you truly and fully live there, where your thoughts and works find their medium of responsive life. When I am in the West, I feel, more strongly than ever, I am received in a living world of mind. I miss here my sky and light and leisure ; but I am in touch with those who feel and express their need of me and to whom I can offer myself, It is not unlikely that some time hence my thoughts will no longer be necessary to them and my personality will lose its flavour; but does it matter? The tree sheds its leaves, but the fact is, that so long as these were living they brought sunshine into the heart of the tree and their voice was the voice of the forest; and my communication with western humanity has been a communication of life; even when it ceases, the fact remains that it brought some rays of light there, which have been transformed into
