211From John Adams to Alexander Bryan Johnson, 21 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
Thanks for your favour of the 15th. and the Pamphlet inclosed. Lord Bollingbrook says and every body knows that nobility in China ascends when a Man is ennobled, he ennobles all his Ancestors but none of his Posterity and his Lordship pronounces this law a wise institution, and I believe it is, and much wiser than to ennoble a long list of puppies, and Butterflies to all future ages. In this...
212From John Adams to John Farmer, 16 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
my apology for neglecting so long to acknowledge the receipt of your Historical Collections, is that eighty seven years is a heavy load to carry, or in the more expressive and more elegant language of one of my Farmers, the eightyeith year of a Mans life, is a hard outside roe of corn to hoe, but I am weary of alledging age and infirmity as excuses for procrastination.— You have sent me a very...
213From John Adams to Timothy M. Cooley, 14 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
I am honoured with your letter of January 9th. 1823. It would give me great pleasure, to send you any Books for the use of your Classical school but I have already given my Library to a Classical School in Quincy, excepting a very few, which are a necessary of Life to me, I send you the second and third Volume of my Defence, of the first volume I have but one Copy—Of the Discourse’s on Davila...
214From John Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 14 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
Wonderful Woman, wife of a wonderful Man, How it is possible for you with your delicate Constitution and tender Health, to go through such a hurry of Visits, Dinners, and parties, Converse with such a variety, of Characters, masculine, and Feminine, and at the same time keep so particular a Journal. Yours of the 14th of December, up to the 30th. has arrived this Morning. your journal is a kind...
215From John Adams to George Washington Adams, 12 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of the 5th. instant full of wise reflections philosophical and moral. I am glad you think so much and so prudently. You must be very happy all of you together I wish I could be one of your family circle during the vacations notwithstanding all the silly trécasseries of the times. Your Fathers notice of General Smyth was brought to me last night and read to me by Mr....
216From John Adams to Daniel Coney, 11 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of the 7th. upon a very grave, serious, and important subject—You enquire how I get on this cold weather; I will tell you in few words—I have a bottle of hot water quart Bottl filled with boiling water, laid between the sheet at the foot of my Bed, and it defuses its heat through the whole Bed, and keeps me as warm as an egge under a setting hen— Your machinery is...
217From John Adams to Charles Thomson, 6 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
Col: Pickering has sent me in your name your Synopsis of the four Evangelists, The whole of which has been read to me, except the notes, I cannot delay to express my gratitude for your Rememberance of me, and for this rich present, It is much more intelligable to me than King James translation— I know of no Man who has spent the last thirty years of a long life in so much serenity, industry...
218From John Adams to John Coffin, 4 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
Better late than never, to acknowledge your discourse on Medical Education, which I read in the Season of it, with great pleasure. and intended to have immediately to have acknowledged my obligation for it—It is as elegant and instructive a Composition as any I have read of the kind; but in the confusion of my papers an it has slipped my memory for which I ask you pardon, And I pray you to...
219From John Adams to Alexander Bryan Johnson, 4 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 26th. December just now received, has thrown me into a kind of froliksome mixture of gaiety and gravity, which has raised my Spirits. I am glad you are so fond of Swift; I know of no Man who has exhibited stronger proofs of a sound rational mind, and profound information on one hand, or of wanton fun, on the other; even his indecent drollery is instructive, and even moral....
220From John Adams to Thomas Loring, Jr., 3 January 1823 (Adams Papers)
I thank you kindly for your present of Dr. Gays Sermon. Such has been my veneration for that Revnd. and Venerable Patriarch, from my earliest Infancy, to the present hour, that in reading his Sermon I seem to see him in the Pulpit, to discern the motion of his lips, and to hear the sound of his voice. I recollect the conversations I have had with him, the cheerfulness and vivacity of his Wit...