Your Letter my Dear Charles would cause me considerable uneasiness did I not know that you have the power of remedying largely the evils of which you complaint and that all you want is to exert that portion of resolution or will (which you Amply possess upon most points) to buckle too seriously and earnestly to your studies without suffering your most more pleasing avocations to draw you from...
Your two Cousins and John having left me at home and gone to pass the evening at Mrs. J Monro’s I shall devote some time to you by way of amusing myself and to find occupation as neither reading or writing are at present suited to my sight being almost blind— I really do not wonder you should have suffered uneasiness at hearing the poor child cough as I know nothing more distressing than the...
I know why it is but I write with so much difficulty and feel so much averse to undertake it I am ever procrastinating the answers to the Letters that are addressed to me this will account to you for h not having an answer to your last and though a miserable excuse must be accepted until something or other occurs to restore me to my wonted capacity and habits—I have the utmost reliance and...
Just returned from Virginia about 2 hours ago, I hasten to answer your Letter which your father gave me on my arrival, and expressing to you the deep sorrow I feel at the gloomy temper which still appears throughout the above mentioned Letter—At your age my Son this habit of fretting and complaining is peculiarly particularly to be avoided, as it acquires strength hourly, and renders your days...
I yesterday received your Letter and could not help smiling at poor Shaws distress though I really do not see why he grieves about the Books. Surely he did not pretend to go want them for his Atheneum? If not why does it concern him?—Your Grandfather is the best judge of what is to be done and his advisers know best what they are after—He appears now to be in the hands of a Judge —I wont say a...
I have again received a Letter from you my Dear Charles which I hasten to answer at least to quiet your fears concerning my health which although I cannot say it is good is not such as to make you anxious or give serious cause for uneasiness— President Kirkland has written to your father concerning John and has announced dissmission and postponement of the Degree and I presume we shall have...
Your Letter came yesterday and was received with even more pleasure than they generally are from its amiable and grateful tenor. Every advancement you make in your education or rather in the mutual improvement of both mind and heart is an additional blessing to you and to us and you will feel the delight accruing from it in the pleasure derived from the expansion of your own intellect and...
Your Letter gave me much pleasure though I thought I perceived some few marks of carelessness and want of attention which I hope in time you will correct—Your father & myself are delighted to find that Mr Gould is so kind to you and that he is sufficiently satisfied with your progress to reward you thus publicly and I am sure you have too much ambition to improve and retain these marks of...
I could almost wish your Letters were filled with observations on any other books than Novels which I am afraid occupy more of your time than I think strictly good for you—However as you tell me that you find it too warm to read much now and that you intend to walk out in the evenings I will only say that I recommend you most earnestly to study something more worthy of you and more calculated...
Your two last Letters have come safely to hand and I am much pleased at your steadiness and punctuality in writing—I suppose that John’s approaching wedding takes so much of his time in necessary preparation, that he has not been able to pay due attention to his correspondents—Give my Love to him however and tell him I hope he is going to give me a dutiful and amiable Daughter who will make up...
Keep up your spirits my dear Son and do let the outrageous slanders and misrepresentations of the day make any impression on your mind as the very people are from whom the Slanders emanate acknowledge that they are only invented for electioneering purposes— A Presidential Election is becoming so fiery an Ordeal it will soon require more patience I had almost said more Virtue than falls to the...
In answer to your last Letter I can only say that I regret as much as you do the precipitation with which you left me although I am very confident you will derive much advantage from the change and the happiest results to your future peace of mind—As it regards your immediate situation your father and myself mutually disapprove your plan of Boarding in your chamber alone and would much prefer...
The observations which you make in your Letter to me of the 29 March on the Books you have been reading are just and prove that you derive advantage from your application, and that you digest, and reflect upon the subject of your at author There is a striking similarity between that part of Scottish Chiefs which you mention and Telemachus and from both these much instruction is to be...
I hasten to answer your last my Dear Charles as I cannot bear your reproaches which I feel I merit for my total want of exertion—The complaint under which I am labouring however must plead my excuse as it entirely incapacitates those who are subjected to it from performing all active duties by debilitating both mind and body to a degree of almost imbecility— I am happy to learn that you are...
It is an old fashion thus to begin a Letter but there is something so pleasant in the spontaneous feeling which dictates the words, that I write or indeed find them written, ere I am aware that my Letter is begun; so that tho’ fashion is a tyrant ruler, and I generally submit with very good will to its sway, reason sometimes (not often) as you once observed takes the lead, and nolens volens...
The character you give of your friend Dawes is so pleasing, that I am much rejoiced at your having met such a friend, and I hope your friendship will prove as durable as the good qualities on which it is founded—The adventures of a Fancy must be very amusing from your extract, and the moral appears to be excellent—It shews you that you must never do evil in the hope that good may come of it,...
What is the reason you do not write me? Are you determined to relinquish all intercourse with your Mother or are your avocations so very severe arduous that you cannot find a little time to devote to me—Commencement now approaches fast are there any very distinguished scholars in the present Class or is it to be very mesquin? George is quite pleased with our Washington Summer contrary to his...
Well, Charles, how comes on the file? is yours as big as John’s? are your walks so delightful you cannot get one moment of time to write me? or are you so busy in giving your french Lessons to your friend Dawes that you are obliged to decline my correspondence?—I am so perfectly sure that you have some very good reason for your silence I by no means wish to reproach you—But as it is long time...
Why will you give way to despondence? the time you have been at College has been too short in any way to decide upon your Scholarship and you should not dwell too much upon your standing as long as you exert yourself to improve it—I am told that it is not customary to let young men know any thing about it for fear of exciting jealousy therefore you cannot ascertain what is perfectly immaterial...
John in his last Letter to me tells me that you make a secret of my Letters to you and will not let him see them—I did not think you were so boyish more especially since you have become a Sophomore—Do not then embitter by such nonsense the hours you have to spend together and be assured that the affection of your Mother is so equally divided between her Sons that each is the equal object of...
Your father was amused by your last Letter and glad to learn that you were pleased with any part of your studies and thinks that your distate of Mathematics may decrease as you advance in your course—George is gone to Rockville to visit Johnson whose health is very indifferent in consequence he says of severe study and probably some other nameless causes—He has not been up since you saw him...
I have been so sick my Dear Charles since my arrival at home it has been altogether out of my power to write to you or to George and I now sieze the earliest opportunity that you may be convinced I can never neglect you or forget my promise of writing frequently—Washington looks very dull although it is full of strangers but it is said we are to have a very gay and crowded Winter unless...
Your Letter from Cambridge arrived yesterday my dear Charles and I was sorry to find you still suffered from your old nervous timidity—Do not however despair I struggled many years of my life from against the same difficulty but fortunately conquered it and now can almost generally command myself—Habit and constant practice will soon get the better of this very unpleasant sensation and reading...
Huzza, my little gallant Soldier—what wonderful feats of glorious prowess am I to anticipate from your valour?—Military and philosophical a union of necessity for I believe a poor Soldier never understands philosophy so well as when he is forced into the midst of danger without an opportunity to get out of it—In your military exertions which I understand from your brothers former experiences...
I congratulate you upon the recovery of your spirits; and I do not know what to say about Langdon as I doubt if he is as steady and good a boy as Horner, but if Horner does not enter I cannot know of any person better calculated than Langdon for a Chum On your share of prudence you know best how much I can rely and conduct towards your brother George from whom I have not heard for many weeks...
As I am afraid you will hardly recieve my Letter in time I hasten to tell you that if you have no part assigned to you you must come on directly so as to be here on Wednesday Week when Genl La Fayette is to pay us a visit and I want you to assist me in doing the honours of the House— Give my love to all and tell George to send the Silk by you to your affectionate Mother MHi : Adams Papers.
I am so concerned at the style of your last Letter I hasten to answer it immediately although I have not had it more than an hour. Your health which is so precious to both your father and myself is our first care the state of your mind the next—If the first I charge you to take great care. You know the remedies I always apply for a cough as unfortunately you have had too much experience of...
In yours of the 4th & 7th you tell me that you had taken a fresh cold but that it was nearly well—I am very happy to hear it and will only caution you against any imprudence during the coming season which though it betokens the approach of Summer is infinitely more injurious than actual cold weather; be careful to make no change in your cold clothing until I write you and do not hastily throw...
You seem by the facetious tone of your Letters when you honour me with any to imagine that I have a very high opinion of your conduct and the steadiness of your character and take wonderful pains to assure me that you are not exempt from human frailty—do not be uneasy on this score! In the first place you are my Son and have a little of the Mother in you. In the second your very demure people...
I am very much pained by your account of your health and hope sincerely that you have made a short visit to Quincy where such remedies have been applied as have restored you entirely— It gives me great pleasure to learn that you are growing popular in your Class and I grieve that you must lose your room because I know what delight you took in it, and that you spent a good deal of money on it—...
I am sorry to say that your last Letter was so badly written that I could scarcely read it and I again implore you to write a larger hand and you will soon get rid of the cramped style which you have acquired I suppose you have been passing an agreeable Vacation at Quincy and found your Grandfather quite well—and as usual occupied in all perusing all the new publications—Your father has...
I have been so unwell it has not been in my power to answer your last Letter—Poor John—Has the belle passion again seized his imagination it is not yet time for it to occupy his heart —Is this the cause of his poetic ardour and his fits of absence—Tell him I shall be much hurt if he does not write me soon for though I will make all possible allowance for love I must not be forgotten— Your...
I will begin my letter, by offerering the joint congratulations of your father and myself, to you and your brothers, and all our mutual friends, on the anniversary of the new year, which we passed with more than usual pleasure, in consequence of the very flattering accounts which we have received in a variety of forms from Boston, of the good conduct and improvement of yourself and your...
Having just dismissed my visitors Mr. Jackson and Mr McTavish I hasten to write you in answer to your long expected and long wished Letter which reached me yesterday— Your encreasing popularity is a thing as you observe calculated to excite vanity you must therefore be on your guard against the encroachment of so ignoble a passion for even men of superior understandings suffer it sometimes to...
You reproach me without a cause and I dare say you got your Letter the very day after you wrote—My time has however been very much occupied in sitting for a picture which is not a quarter finished and which it is probable will employ me the whole summer— You complain without reason of your Letter to me which was by no means bad tho’ it was odd but I do not know what you mean by saying you were...