Arthur Dixon letters
Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/3/1/1
Page: 28 recto
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Description
Letter of Arthur Dixon to John Joseph Cotman, 22 September 1834
Dixon is overjoyed to have received a letter from JJC and to learn that his new employment has begun well. He gives news of the health of Mrs Cotman, described as a convalescent invalid. She has benefited from the prescription [given to her by Dixon as a pharmacist]. JJC may keep the copy of the Quarterly Review for the moment. Dixon gives brief news of JJC's brothers (Francis) Walter, Alfred and Edmund.would be willing to sell a picture by Edmund for £20-£30 for JJC's benefit. [Joseph] Geldart is still unwell but is planning a sketching trip with [Thomas] Lound. Dixon mentions other mutual friends including Sam Coleman.
Date: 1834
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Transcription
[Note added in pencil by Kitson:
21 [sic, i.e. 12]
x Mention Walter, Alfred & Edmund
x Edmund's picture £20 n 30]Norwich Sept 22nd 1834
My dear John
If I could only return you but the half of the pleasure you communicated yesterday I should make a rich addition to your happiness – if the consciousness of imparting happiness to another does really return with redolence into the breast of benevolence, how very very happy should you be my dear Friend, with the knowledge of having proved to another & one whom you beleive [sic] worthy of your esteem & attachment, the sine qua non of the happiness of his life, – while all that constitutes the happiness of either is a higher relish for the exercise of those virtues & qualities which advance us in the scale of intellectual existence and make us better fulfil the duties of the separate relations of life. I was pleased that you had a bright day to commence your career on, it made the Norfolk trip "go off" with more eclat, & then to know that you enter on the business of each day with regularity, which is to ensure the going through it with cheerfulness when it once becomes settled into a habit. – To have experienced that solace which employment of time gives, is better than all the truisms that could be written without experience, and I congratulate you from my soul. Your happiness is to mine of more vital importance that aught else that calls for my interest. I find myself at times in a reverie of pleasure, contemplating
