Transcribe Ward, Henry A. Letter to Orton, James (1855-10-31)

I could mention an infinity of reasons on why I had wished to have exactly you with me. Indipendently of our old friendship, of the constancy of which, on my part, I need not reassure, there is that in your aims in life & their connected circumstances which interests me much both in you & for you. I will give no explanation of this except by continuing that I think that perhaps no two persons can live together more desirably to both than a minister & a Geologist. Your studies have doubtless already made you feel this. Let me mention one or two reasons why I am sorry on your account that you have not been able to come now. There is my my mind no doubt that for acquiring the French you would have been advanced at least 6 weeks by rooming with me, or rather with any per American who had studied the language lately & who had all the peculiarities of grammar & expression fresh in his mind ready to hand them right over to you. You will see the extent & importance of such aid in learning to talk & consequently to understand the language. when you reflect that it is next to impossible from a Frenchman (who is necessary for the pronunciation) to ascertain how a certain given thing is said in French for that would imply that he understood in its full value your English. I could have aided you more or less in your expenses as I have already mentioned. Futhermore you would have escaped that feeling of entire lonliness which is so common to a new comer to this oddcountry. And here let me add, Orton, the if you are in the least prone to the blues do not come to Paris unless you are to have a friend there during the first few months. A lonlier place could not be well imagined with an almost constant drizzle from October to May. These three things which I have mentioned