I was delighted with your Letter and was only sorry you did not mention your health, which I understand has been very indifferent, and which causes me the most serious anxiety: write me I entreat you and beg your good friend Harriet, to write me what your complaint has been, and if you have any cough, I wish you to take the yolk of a new laid egg alone in a spoon every morning when you first...
You Letter was brought two days since, and I should have received it with the same pleasure your Letters have always given me, had I not perceived a great falling off in the hand writing, which surprized and grieved me a little; as I had always flattered myself that with due attention and constant practice, you would write a very handsome hand and with great facility—do not my dear child by a...
As I hear there has been a great fall of snow during the last week or two in Boston I suppose you have seen many of those booby huts which you wrote me about last winter and perhaps have rode in one—I am not fond of them for they are apt to make me sea sick and should like much better to have a pretty Russian Traineau— As it is also the season for skating I must renew my cautions both to John...
94From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 30 November 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your dear Mother not long since received a Letter from you, in which I read with great pleasure, that you get on at School pretty fast, and that in three weeks you hope to begin College Studies—As it is just three weeks since you wrote that Letter; if your hopes have been fulfilled you will this very day begin upon your College studies; and Oh! how happy shall I be, if you can hereafter write...
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...
You tell me in your last Letter that “you believe you did not write to me, because you had not received a Letter from me” I think you have in some of your former Letters mentioned that you kept a book in which you copied them; by refering to this book you would be able to know positively how the matter stood. but at any rate you must not be so punctilious as to wait for a Letter from me but...
Is it because I have not answered your last Letter my dear Charles that you have not written to me? or is it because you are not so attentive as you used to be and devote too much time to novel reading? I hope not the latter as I am inclined to think that much of this sort of reading has a tendency to weaken the judgement, and to create an artificial taste, and what is worse an artificial and...
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...
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...
I am much gratified to learn that you have made an agreeable acquaintance, and still more that the young friend you have chosen, is a boy of emulation—his fortune is of little consequence, as with talents & industry much may be done in this Country, and by constant application you may both attain honour and reputation—I have no doubt that you took pains to distinguish yourself at the...
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...
102From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 19 January 1818 (Adams Papers)
Your new-years day Letter was received with much pleasure. I had heard something before, about your having had the Φ. Β. K. medal to wear for a week, and generally that Mr Gould was well satisfied with your attention to your studies, and with your good conduct; all which was very delightful to your mother and me—But it would have been still more agreeable if you had written that you continued...
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...
As Mr. Pope is so good as to offer to convey your skates to Boston I have siezed the opportunity of writing you a few lines in answer to your Letter my dear Charles which was very gratifying to me as it afforded ample proofs of your being good at school by the compliment so handsomely paid you by Mr. Gould—Such a compliment when it is addressed by a person in the capacity of a master or...
105From John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 14 December 1817 (Adams Papers)
A very few days after my arrival in this City, I received your Letter of 19. September, the contents of which I dare say you have before this time forgotten; unless you kept a copy of it, as you remember you used to do, of the Letters that you wrote to me from St. Petersburg, when I was at Ghent. This Letter of yours of 19. September last, I have kept upon my file, ever since I received it;...
Your papa was much pleased with your Letter as it was very prettily written and the style was tolerably good with a little attention you will very soon write a good and handsome hand and I hope that you will equally improve in all the other branches of education concerning which both your father and myself are so anxious— I am very sorry to learn from a Letter from your grandmama that your...
107From John Adams to Charles Francis Adams, 21 March 1817 (Adams Papers)
I now hope to see you, after 8 years Absence. I cannot write you a formal Letter. You have a kind of fame for a facility of learning Languages. Let me caution you against indulging that Curiosity too much. Languages are a boundless and unfathomable Ocean. Greek and Latin and Arithmatick and Geometry are your most proper Studies at present. French and Italian and German will be easy here after...