A three-page manuscript letter. Envelope on recto of page three. Writing on recto and verso.
The
There are more than 2500 hundred letters that are known to exist that either
pertain to the
This is the oldest letter in the
Your kind letter under date
the
menced your Collegiate life with
I’m informed, the foundation, laid in part at
great advantage
for the remainder of life. I need not recommend diligence to one
who has afforded already so prominent an example of Industry –
I need not say that I hope you will in all cases conform unequi-
vocally to rules of College as well as the wishes of the Lecturers & instruct-
ors because I presume you made that resolution before you entered
college. Amongst the young men who compose the number of stu-
dents, frequently there are restless spirits wont to give difficulty to
the Governors of the Institution, who upon slight disgusts, are apt to raise
tumults & effect combinations in direct hostility to their teachers & en-
tirely subversive of the views with which they entered the Seminary. These
my dear boy are to be avoided by all young men who value their honour,
peace or happiness. You have commenced a life of study & will of course
pursue it with your accustomed endeavor, the reward you will certainly
obtain in due time in the respectability & influence attached to a man
of Literature & in the internal satisfaction derived from a cultivated & well
stored mind, affording an inexhaustible treasure for contentment and
happiness. Please bear in mind the sons of
fact be considered as public property, & those selfish views of individual
aggrandizement must give place to more elevated notions of public
utility. Where shall we look for prominent men in Church & State but
if we do not find them issuing from the first literary institution of
numbers to fill the ranks of eminent men gone & falling into the
shades of death. Could I again commence my career at college, how
delightful, the prospect, by patient & unremitting exertions, to acquire
a fund of knowledge, an extensive acquaintance, well confirmed hab-
its & a fair prospect of future usefulness, if not excellence in the
profession which I might select. I sometimes wish I could resume
my youth & join you in your delightful pursuits, but that is
forbidden, & time is not to be recalled. I could say many things my
dear boy, but you will by your own ingeniousness obviate the necess-
ity of any cautions or instructions touching your future views & conduct.
And
dies generally make rapid progress in literary acquisitiveness I shall expect a
Latin Epistle from
when he gets roused will take great strides in his learning & become a
most enterprising fellow.
quietly & surely & our
the expectations which all are led to place upon him ...
I must now close not being quite well & request you to say to your Mamma
that as I have not yet rec’d the preserves & I shall not give her the whole of
my gratitude for her kindness but impose some future opportunity
for that purpose. Make my
mother, your father & all the
your sincere friend & uncle.
What advice does