LETTER XI. Many Tongues

MANY TONGUES

LEARN languages. My work in this war has been hampered by my knowing so little of German.

With the souls of those long here I can hold converse by pure thought; but the souls of the newly-come speak the language they spoke on earth and often that language is but a patois. That is one reason why I have had best success among the English armies.

I can read the thoughts of the Germans and the French, but they cannot always understand me. The father and mother of the two women in Belgium had been so long out here that we could understand each other’s thoughts.

Learn languages. When you come to work in this world you may want them even more than on earth, for distances here are short as thought, and one goes from place to place in the twinkling of an eye.

March 30.