The following reflections by the venerable Dr. Perkins, written about this time, will be refreshing to the reader: "The progress of our work," he says, "is steadily onward, and is probably as rapid as would consist with its highest prosperity. This progress is not always in a uniform current. It often resembles a succession of circling eddies, caused generally by obstacles in the stream, but sometimes by the accelerated speed of the current, which, but for these self-regulating checks, might bring upon the work serious disaster. Such eddies are often our best missionary regulators, correcting mistakes or undue haste, and giving to our converts occasion and time to examine the foundations of their faith." Miss Nancy Jane Dean joined the mission in October, 1868, to labor in the female seminary. Miss Rice and Mrs. Rhea had left Oroomiah in the previous May, with Dr. Perkins, and arrived at New York in August. Miss Rice had been connected with the female seminary twenty-two years, and her good influence was felt in hundreds of Nestorian homes on the broad plain and in the wild glens of the mountains. Mrs. Rhea's return was due to her children, but, like that of Miss Rice, it was a sad loss to the mission circle, and to the women of Persia. The return of Dr. Perkins, the father of the Nestorian mission, seemed like a removal of the foundations. "It is difficult," wrote Mr. Shedd, "to over-estimate his labors, continued now for more than a third of a century, or the value of his experience. It is a gratification to him, and to us all, that he can leave us in the atmosphere of revivals; and that, after he is gone, the many works from his pen will continue to speak to the people whom he loved. But many will sorrow at his leaving Persia, and most of all that they shall see his face no more." Dr. Perkins had seen much accomplished in the thirty-six years of his connection with the mission. From eighty-five centres, and to congregations averaging nearly two thousand four hundred, the gospel had come to be proclaimed, by more than a hundred native helpers, of whom fifty-eight were fully recognized preachers; and more than nine hundred persons had professed their faith in Christ, of whom seven hundred and twenty were then connected with the evangelical communion. The seminaries had educated hundreds of youth, whose influence was seen in the general social and moral elevation of the people. In the common schools there were more than a thousand pupils; and from the press more than half a million of pages had gone forth in the year preceding his departure; making an aggregate of nearly nineteen millions (18,996,450) from the beginning.