Transcription:
-3- I was indifferent about it. I had no other philosophy than that of doing today's work today - a philosophy that has this
advantage, if industriously carried out: that it gives one no chance to ask himself questions. It was in the second year of
my illness that the impatience began to wear away, and I was able to look on the world with calmness and in a spirit of inquiry.
What followed seems almost like a miracle to me now, as I look back over it in the aggregate and analyze my changed and clarified
point of view; and yet each step was natural and easy - almost inevitable. It was merely a process of mental housecleaning,
a cautious thinking out of problems and matching them together to make a consistent whole - a new philosophy of life, in which
happiness and hope can grow as they never could before. I do not speak of this as anything unique, for I am sure it happens
to many people at one time or another of their lives. Not every one needs a long illness, as I did, to put him through such
an experience. And I don't pretend to be able to communicate it to anybody - at least not by any easy and rapid method. I
speak of it chiefly because I feel that when a man who has been imprisoned over four years with a wrecked body, and who has
lost his home by fire, ventures to say that he is reasonably happy, and never enjoyed life so much - there is certainly some
form of explanation due from him. And here you have it. With earnest good wishes and sincere regards, ILLEGIBLE Post
Office Address: Rural Delivery Route 1, Los Angeles, Box 320. 05331-3-