[Excerpt of letter to Grandmother Margaret Reid Sloan, June, 1943]

I found in the New York Public Library a document which I have sought for years. It contains the oldest surviving legends of the creation and some day, if this war ever ends, I shall translate it. There is one rather charming legend to the effect that models of’ everything were sent down from heaven at the creation, these models being worked out in perfect and imperishable jewels, so that no matter how corrupt the world may become, the one who honestly searches can always find the true image of things as they were meant to be. That is the way some people (notably our remarkable grandmother) impress one — as clear mirrors of the celestial world. While they seem oddly out of place among us, everyone seems strangely at home with them.