1r:1
Paris, 29 Sept. 1875

My dear Theo,
Be careful, old boy, don’t lose your resilience.1
See things as they are, and, for yourself, don’t think everything good.
One can deviate, both to the left hand and to the right hand.2 Remember what Pa no doubt once told you too: understanding and feeling must go together.
Warm regards and ever,

Your loving brother
Vincent

Write again soon.

 1r:2
I advised you to go out quite a lot, but if you don’t like it, don’t do it. You know that I didn’t go out so very much either, and that people often remarked upon it.
How much I’d like for us to be able to breakfast together or drink a cup of chocolate in my room. Keep well, old chap. Don’t take things that don’t concern you directly too much to heart, and don’t let them weigh upon you too heavily. How is it going, eating bread? Have you tried it yet? In haste, I shake your hand heartily in thought.

052

Br. 1990: 051 | CL: 39a
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Paris, Wednesday, 29 September 1875
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1. Theo was depressed. Willem Laurens Kiehl – who, like Theo, boarded with the Rooses – had died on 22 September. Mr van Gogh wrote to Theo on 25 September: ‘We are hard hit by the news of Kiehl’s death. I can imagine that you’re very conscious of it and feel it deeply. You lived with him for a fairly long time. How that Miss Roos will have taken care of him faithfully. Dying pathetically. So young. With a life behind him that was not easy, missing much of what others experience of love from their close relations’ (FR b2363).