“The possibility of pre-natal poisoning was interesting, but what I had in mind was to raise the question of its effect upon moral responsibility.”

Explaining the deeper ethical question behind a scientific premise in his fiction · Letter concerning Elsie Venner

• Morality
• Science
• Writing

“Most of the settlers of New England were too poor and too hard worked in fighting famine and the Indians to think much of their genealogical trees.”

A practical view of ancestry grounded in the hardships of early settlement · Letter to Emra Holmes

• Circumstance
• Family
• History

“I have always placed the highest value on your good opinion.”

An unusually direct expression of the importance he attached to a trusted friend’s judgement · Letter, late-life correspondence

• Friendship
• Recognition
• Respect