Barcelona: March 7th, 1870
My Dear Smith,
The enclosed[2] (with fictitious date) can no longer be delayed. I received your letter after a few days overdue. Many thanks for it. I shall reply soon. It did me a power of good. I am at present on a tour through the provinces — pleasant enough if it weren’t for the responsibility. Awkward complication when duty is difficult to see as well as to do.
If the certificate doesn’t please you (and I am sure it falls far short of the many good things I ought in gratitude to say) let me know & I’ll improve it. Quod bonum faustum felix fortunatumque sit.[3]
In tremendous haste,
Yours afftly John S. Black
[Enclosure]
Having as a fellow-student been for three years intimately acquainted with Mr Smith, I gladly bear such testimony as I may to his peculiar qualifications for the post to which he has been nominated.
It seems to me that few men are naturally endowed with intellectual power of so high an order as his and that fewer still have used the power they have so conscientiously and energetically and wisely. Energetically he has used it for his acquirements are many and varied and deep, conscientiously and wisely also, for there has been a constant self-restraint in his studies so that the results display a singular unity and all contribute to the freshness and strength of his theology. I know in particular that he has made special and successful study of the Hebrew language and of the old testament scriptures from a clear perception of the necessity of such knowledge to the formation of sound theological science.
Besides possessing learning and the love of it he is happily endowed with a geniality of temperament and a width of sympathy which fit him well for dealing with those whose acquirements are not so great in extent and whose thinking is not so clear & strong in quality as are his own.
It would give me great satisfaction to know that Mr Smith had soon found some suitable sphere of usefulness in the church. Should he be appointed to the chair of Hebrew now vacant I feel bound from personal experience to say that the student must be indeed be a strange one whom Mr Smith cannot inspire with some of his own enthusiasm for theological study & especially for the study of the Hebrew language & of Old Testament Theology.
John S. Black
Seville, March 1st 1870