You can rest right down on it, every time. I did not choose the word lightly, or with haste; & but after thought, & unhurried seeking for the right word; rejecting several that were near to being the right one, yet but which failed, by a shade, to reflect to the full the thing which was in my mind. I am careless about minor words, but never not about key-words—I mean, I don’t weigh the powder for the blank carotridges, but I do for the bullets. And look here: it wasn’t my idea to send you that ridiculous General-Butler toy; it was Stone’s—he wanted to sell it, I reckon. He said some minister ought to have it, to beguile his mind away, for a moment, from the contemplation of the woes & foolishnesses & littlenesses of the creeping things he is commissioned by his office to save or damn; & so I said send it to Dr Burton—for it struck me that his idea was sound. And when a toy-fiend exhibits an idea, he one marvels, & he is sore afraid, & his reason fails him, & he doth the thing which is thoughtless.

Merry Christmas.