L E T T E R S

6671836. This House was for its members, a. guarantee of perseverance and ofspiritual training.Secondly, since before this time we had all dedicated ourselves to variousearthly projects, when we were converted we wished to dedicate ourselvescompletely to the work of God. He became for us the focal point and the center; inHim we placed all of our zeal and all of our hopes. He was the bond uniting us ina spiritual community for the rest of our lives. But, in line with what I wrote in thelast letter, you might put less emphasis on this point.Thirdly, we established this House with the idea that it would become foreach of these convertis a House of refuge, reformation and spiritual exercise. Itwas also to be a kind of standard for those who, leaving behind entirely all of theirplans for their careers, wished to offer their whole life, all of their strength andtheir means, to the service of God in order to defend the truth of Christ, and topropagate it and its practices in all forms of life.We ourselves had no money. Yet we threw ourselves body and soul intothe propagation and realization of this idea by which God had bound us togetheras one. From the beginning, a lack of calculation and prudence was our fault -especially mine. We often accepted people whose financial condition was bad. Wetook care of these matters for them. Some of those living with us had no income,and it was hard to find work for them, We offered a variety of help to a variety ofpeople: books, correspondence, travel, etc., which entailed expenses exceedingour income and the small and irregular donations we were receiving from somepeople, among these from Caesar.Apropos Caesar, who surely told Popiel some strange things in Rome, i.e.,how he founded the House and maintains it, etc. The fact is that he did not knowof our intention to found the House until, right before its establishment,Mickiewicz went to him with the request that, on his responsibility, he give him afew hundred francs from the funds which he had assured him previously were athis disposal. He gave 500 francs. But, in order to establish the house, weimmediately took loans of 600 francs elsewhere, because we had to pay the rentbefore-hand.