a. Read: ‘verstandelijk’ (rationally).

1. A pun on the ‘fijngevoelig’ (‘finer feelings’) used earlier.

2. Van Gogh started on a fresh sheet – the ‘enclosed letter’ refers to the first part up to here.

3. After this Van Gogh crossed out: ‘Stumbling block that cannot belie his nature in so far’ (‘Struikelblok dat zijne natuur niet kan verloochenen in zoover’).

4. This sentence derives from two lines of verse in the poem ‘Enoch Arden’ by Alfred Tennyson: ‘He will repay you: money can be repaid; / Not kindness such as yours.’ See The poems of Tennyson. Ed. Christopher Ricks. 3 vols. Harlow 1987, vol. 2, p. 634. Quoted again in letter 420.

5. After this Van Gogh crossed out: ‘unless something makes me change my mind’ (‘ten zij ik daaromtrent tot andere gedachten kom door wat’).

b. Read: ‘Als doorslaggevende (bedenkingen)’ (as decisive (suspicions)).

6. Cf. the French proverb ‘Une porte doit être ouverte ou fermé’, which Van Gogh quotes in letter 432.

7. On Thursday, 20 December 1883, Mr van Gogh informed Theo that the room where the mangle was had already undergone some modifications for Vincent’s benefit (FR b2250). See also letters 416 and 422.

8. Jules Michelet quotes this sentence in L’amour (book 2, ‘La noce’ (The wedding) as ‘the hard, but clear word of Natural history’ (le mot dur, mais net, de l’Histoire naturelle). See Michelet, L’amour, p. 118.