Transcribe Ward, Henry A. Letter to Dewey, Chester (1857-03-21)

                                                  (5)

I am sorry, Sir, to have passed over in such few words the things which I saw & learned upon my trip between Venice & Messina. This was by far the most interesting & in- structure part of my whole journey, I antic- irate, however, with a great deal of pleasure the time when I can speak with you in full both of the Grology of Italy & also of that of the whole country which I have gone over. At present I can only beg your indulgence towards me for the length at which I have taken the liberty to write you. I do not know if I ought not to make some apology to my friends at home for the fact that I have allowed myself this four months vacate in the regular course o my studies, When the journey was proposed to me last fall, I felt that if it were merely to see the countries through ^which^ it was to lead me - their sights & their cities, - that I could not afford the time which the tour would demandI thought however that </s the > I could by attention render the journey in some sort an application practise of what I had already learned. In this I have succeeded even better than I had dared to hope. I have not only seen directly many things of which my only previous idea was derived from arid and descriptions, but also I have become acquainted with a large number of things entirely new to me. As a result of these observations I find my- self at the present moment with a much more correct & definite idea of the true principles