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

I shall attend the lectures on geology & Paleontology only at the Jardin des Plantes & Ecole des mines. I so wish you could attend them with me. Your letter was full of interest 7 I have read it many times. I was however sorry, dear Orton, to find from it that you were somewhat disheartened or low spirited. Be sure that you have no reason to be. With your letter in my pocket(thinking that it was from my sister) I had concluded my evening devotions with the petition that my friend might soon join me here 7 that our communion might be a mutually beneficial one. But as I had asked it with the condition that it was His will so I felt that I could bear the disappointment when, on opening the letter, I found that it was not. And so i trust you will look on it, Orton. I am sure that you have been led many times in reviewing your experiences to say "In each event of life most clear. Thy ruling hand I see. & c. and i am sure Orton, that you can & often do so realize the guiding hand of our Heavenly Father that neither an at inability to ? cherished desighns, or a failure of health, can make the "future look dark" to you. Permit me, although your younger, to disapprove of your having entered the Theological Sem. at this time. In the first place your health does not permit of it. Seven years of hard study" is too much at one time for a person of even stronger constitution than yourself. You need that year of comparative rest which almost all theological students take. A reason scarcely les strong is that you ought by all means ti let your course of science preceed your course if Theology. <a>This ^order^is so of?</s>