I wonder if the enclosed verses will shock you. I am very much bored by the praise of suicide so common in “æsthetic” circles. Many of my friends like to think themselves “decadents” and they are most enthusiastic over the work of such third-rate versifiers as the late Richard Middleton, who killed himself at the age of thirty. It seems to me that suicide is the most absurd of all sins. There is, undoubtedly, pleasure in many sorts of evil; many crimes are reprehensible but not ridiculous. But suicide is a stupid sort of sin--the criminal gets no fun at all out of it. I have tried to put this idea into verse--and you should have heard the criticisms when the poem was read aloud at a meeting of the Poetry Society! Yours sincerely, JOYCE KILMER. * * * * * New York, Dec. 22, 1913. Dear Father Daly: I am grateful to you for your sound criticism of “To a Young Poet Who Killed Himself.” It had previously been criticised by “pagans” who thought that suicide was romantic and charming. You gave me just what I needed--an analysis of its “philosophy.” Of course I’ll leave it out of my new book of verse, or else, as you suggest, make it the utterance of someone not myself. You will be glad to hear of our Christmas present from Soeur Therese. Rose can lift her left forearm. I know that you have been getting her aid for us. Please tell us how to show our gratitude to her and to you. A picture of Rose and her mother is going to you for Christmas. I hope that it may be a mirthful feast for you. We can honestly say that we have never before been so happy. Yours sincerely, JOYCE KILMER. * * * * * Mahwah, N. J. Jan. 9, 1914. Dear Father Daly: At last I have leisure to thank you for your Christmas gifts. I did not know that such beautiful cards were made. How is it that in Prairie du Chien--a place of which the name suggests Indians and tomahawks and Deadwood stage-coaches--you can procure better cards than I can get in New York? The medals are highly valued--the workmanship on them is admirable--they will be worn properly as soon as I can afford to buy some silver chains--and that will be next Tuesday. Of course you understand my conversion. I am beginning to understand it. I believed in the Catholic position, the Catholic view of ethics and æsthetics, for a long time. But I wanted something not intellectual, some conviction not mental--in fact I wanted Faith.