From H. R.

I got a kindle form Wendy, uncle brought it back a few days back.  I was playing with it, trying to find what can I download for free...  As usual, I looked backward since I have no knowledge of what my contemporary likes.  I got bible, paradise lost, aesop, brother grimms and the private letters of Henry Ryecroft.  I have the Chinese translation of the last book.  But I think the translation is rough on the edge.  I tried to find this book in both library and online source, but none was found.  I am happy that I find a free one with the kindle. 

There is something really draw me to the words in that book, the private letters of Henry Ryecroft.  The hard words about life, is one of the reason I think.  The understanding of human sweat in the daily pursuit of bread is one.   I finished reading the  Chinese version until the end of Spring section of the book.  Those two topics really strike my thoughts.  Some might laugh at me about I am not working at all, how could those words affect me in anyway.  I thought of that myself.  I felt so sad that I had that thought.  Maybe I like the tough words.  Or maybe I could understand without really experience it.  But no matter what's the reason, I felt sad.  It seemed that any feeling could be understood by using sadness.

I read in English, the introduction of the book from kindle today.  I must say, some of the wording is very personal to me.  For example,

"...was, certainly not a broken spirit, but a mind and temper so sternly disciplined, that, in ordinary intercourse with him, one did not know  but that he led a calm, and contended life."

"Ryecroft had never erred by lack of reticence; as was natural in a sensitive man who had suffered much, he inclined to gentle acquiescence, shrank from argument, from self-assertion."

We all had illusions about ourselves and other people.  Some words I perceived as personal to me in some way now, it might feel like an impossible later on in my life.  But such an illusion does exist.  If it is an illusion, how do I know it is?  If it is not an illusion, how do I know it is not?  The only thing I do know is that these words does feel strikingly personal to me right now.