Transcribe Pond, J. A. Letter to Ward, Henry A. (1881-04-31)

in their lives here in anticipation to go out into the cold realism of a death eternal - no hope no future - no joy. Let those who truly live up to & deserve the future they long for, buy that dear delusion if it is so & if I can wish at all, it is that they may be right & gain the eternal happiness while I go down to the perdition promised for the doubter. Again are we progressing in this matter of doubt? Are not the Goeth's & Voltaires of yesterday equal to the Ingersoll's & Bradlaugh of today? I watch with deep interest the march of progress but feel deeply thr necessity for laying the axe at the root of the dear old tree under whose branches we have been reared. We will think the matter deeply & discuss it yet again I hope & if in the future I join the fray, never fear for me I shall be on the side fighting for liberty & freedom from dogmatism but how like the wars of the roses it will be, - friend against friend.