12 Leamington Road Villas
Bayswater, London W.
January 28th 1907
My dear & ever-revered Professor Haeckel,
I yesterday read with the utmost regret the report that you have lately been far from well, and I cannot refrain from sending you a few lines to say how sorry I am to think of you out of health. I trust you are not actually suffering much & that you may soon be well again. || I have never ceased to look upon you, dear Professor, as one who has given me the fullest & grandest view of life, & my gratitude is ever there. My thoughts too, often revert to the pleasure I had in making your personal acquaintance. I still treasure two little poems of Goethe’s you wrote out for me in my little study in the dear old home, & where you discovered || the „blue-stocking” who had translated your Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte!
Many years have passed since then, & my deafness now shuts me off very much from my fellow creatures & from music ‒ but I have my consolation in books, & having inherited my beloved Väterchen’s „frohe Natur” ‒ I do not readily get depressed.
But I will not tire your will more today, & again only express my || sincere hope that you may be already quite restored to health.
Believe me, my dear old Master, & most honoured friend
Yours ever sincerely
L. Dora Schmitz
