I am rejoiced to hear that you, & my niece got home safe. Such little excursions are really advantageous to our Health—We require some relief from the same round of cares, & objects. Though I have often found myself fatigued at the time, yet the Friendship & cordiality of my Friends, has proved the balm of Life, & very beneficial to my health & spirits— To your kind enquiries after my Abbys...
My social Spirit, which often nightly “me revisits,” has been so busy, & importunate of late as to deprive me of the tranquilizing effect of Sleep, wafting me to the Bed of langour & Sickness, & had impressed my mind so powerfully, that I should hear some of my Family were sick, that when I received your Letter to Day, I opened with the hand of tremulous anxiety my Dear Sister’s kind assurance...
Thanks be to kind Providence we are all alive though the cold Tuesday our blood seemed congealing, & it was hard for me to respire—I do not know as I ever felt more thankful, than when the rigor of the weather abated—but we have still severe cold of long continuance—as the quantity of Snow makes the air more pungent; I suppose we feel the cold much more than you at Quincy for the Snow is over...
Yesterdays mail conveyed me your kind Letter, which convinced me you had experienced those solid pleasures in your late visit to your early Friends, which I had anticipated for you. How happy, & how pleasant, when the Lamp of Life, holds out to burn, even to four score years, that the mind retains its Vigor, & is the brightest Luminary!—In such a case, “Old-age is desirable,” & grey Hairs, is...
Often in this Vale of Tears, My Dear Nephew, & Niece, are we called to sympathize with each other, under the bereaving Dispensations of Heaven—It is the pleasing melancholly Office of Humanity, Friendship, & Affection. Yes! in affliction, I have experienced how grateful is the benign, interested aspect—how soothing to the swoln Heart, is the soft Eye of Pity, & the calm, gentle voice, of kind...
My Dear Sister, has I presume written, & given you some account of the Situation of our Connections at Quincy, & of those melancholy Dispensations of divine Providence which in the last five Months, has deprived both your Family, & mine, of some of the tenderest,—dearest,—most valued Relatives.—While I sympathize with you, & your love ly Wife, in the loss of a fond Mother, & a beloved Sister,...
67From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Richard Cranch, June 1811 (Adams Papers)
To receive a Letter from you My Dear Brother, & to be assured that a beloved Sister is recovering from a dangerous Fever is a balm to my Heart—The Tears of Affection, & the earnest Prayers of the Faithful, through the mediation of Him, who ever liveth to make Intercession, have we trust been graciously answered—And though the Sun has not “gone back upon the Dial,” yet we humbly hope, her...
Company, unexpected, & avocations unavoidable, have for several Days occupied my whole Time, & left me but a few moments to address my absent Friend, & to thank him for his Letter, forwarded by Mr Cogswell— I am rejoiced to hear both from Mr Nichols & you, that your College affairs, wear so favourable an Aspect—It must be consoling to Government, & lighten the oppressive Cares, of those who...
I am going to Quincy with your Sister this forenoon—& shall be in Town on monday A—M—to attend Mr Stewart—I feel an anxiety respecting the price, your affection for me, may exceed the bounds of your circumstances, & that makes me regret that it was ever thought of—Mr Stewart was very polite, appeard sensible, & entertaining, but I did not say a word to him about the price, as you desired me...
70From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to William Smith Shaw, 2 June 1810 (Adams Papers)
your good Aunt Adams has made us a most agreeable visit—I wish you could accompanied her—She says you look relaxed, & are very unwell—That you are pressed with business, which you are obliged to attend yourself, & that induces you to set up late a nights—I have been long of the opinion, that midnight Oil never enriched the mind, nor the Purse—But in its consequences impoverished both—for...
I was very sorry to leave Boston without seeing, or even informing you, I was going—But I had been from home a week longer than I first intended, & as the Vacation was ended, I knew I was much wanted in my Family I, & Abby, went on Friday Eve to Mr Craigies, where I am ever received with cordiality, & affection. Sister Shaw seems as if she never could do enough to oblige, & make one happy—It...