MY DEAR ELIZA,--I have been meaning for a week or more to write you in order to tell you of my engagement, and to ask your sympathies and good wishes. But I have been so much occupied, and have had so many letters to write, to go by the last steamers, that I have been rather neglectful of some of my nearer and dearer friends; trusting to their kindness for my excuse. Yes, my dear Eliza, I am to be married again. My life was too lonely and restless;--I needed the soothing influences of a home;--and I have chosen a person for my wife who possesses in a high degree those virtues and excellent traits of character, which so distinguished my dear Mary. Think not, that in this new engagement, I do any wrong to her memory. I still retain, and ever shall preserve with sacred care all my cherished recollections of her truth, affection and beautiful nature. And I feel, that could she speak to me, she would approve of what I am doing. I hope also for your approval and for your father's.... Think of me ever as Very truly your friend HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.{68} The lady thus described was one who lives in the memory of all who knew her, were it only by her distinguished appearance and bearing, her "deep, unutterable eyes," in Longfellow's own phrase, and her quiet, self-controlled face illumined by a radiant smile. She was never better described, perhaps, than by the Hungarian, Madame Pulszky, who visited America with Kossuth, and who wrote of her as "a lady of Junonian beauty and of the kindest heart."{69} Promptly and almost insensibly she identified herself with all her husband's work, a thing rendered peculiarly valuable from the fact that his eyes had become overstrained, so that he welcomed an amanuensis. Sometimes she suggested subjects for poems, this being at least the case with "The Arsenal at Springfield," first proposed by her within the very walls of the building, a spot whose moral was doubtless enhanced by the companionship of Charles Sumner, just then the especial prophet of international peace. She also aided him effectually in his next book, "The Poets and Poetry of Europe," in which his friend Felton also coöperated, he preparing the biographical notices while Longfellow made the selections and also some of the translations. I add this letter from his betrothed, which strikes the reader as singularly winning and womanly. This also is addressed to the elder sister of the first Mrs. Longfellow. BOSTON, June 5, 1843.