All letters of "Ari" should be uppercased and should be mentioned much earlier in this passage. And the word recieved is wrote "received" and that's it.
Old, ancient, extremely old. prehistoric.
Why does John resist the narrator's attempts to stimulate her mind and express her thoughts? He thinks it will make her condition worse. He wants to be the creative one in their marriage. He thinks it will keep her from more productive work.