“We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.”
60] Many have been
the anxious hours I have spent since that day; the threatening aspect of
our public affairs, the complicated distress of this province, the
arduous and perplexed business in which you are engaged, have all
conspired to agitate my bosom with fears and apprehensions to which I
have heretofore been a stranger; and, far from thinking the scene
closed, it looks as though the curtain was but just drawn, and only the
first scene of the infernal plot disclosed. And whether the end will be
tragical, Heaven alone knows. You cannot be, I know, nor do I wish to
see you, an inactive spectator; but if the sword be drawn, I bid adieu
to all domestic felicity, and look forward to that country where there
are neither wars nor rumors of war, in a firm belief, that through the
mercy of its King we shall both rejoice there together.
I greatly fear that the arm of treachery and violence is lifted over
us, as a scourge and heavy punishment from Heaven for our numerous
offenses, and for the misimprovement of our great advantages. If we
expect to inherit the blessings of our fathers, we should return a
little more to their primitive simplicity of manners, and not sink into
inglorious ease. We have too many high-sounding words, and too few
actions that correspond with them. I have spent one Sabbath in town
since you left. I saw no difference in respect to ornament, etc.; but in
the country you must look for that virtue, of which you find but small
glimmerings in the metropolis. Indeed, they have not the advantages, nor
the resolution, to encourage our own manufactories, which people in the
country have. To the mercantile part, it is considered as throwing away
their own bread; but they must retrench their expenses, and be content
with a small share of gain, for they will find but few who will wear
their livery. As for me, I will seek wool and flax, and work willingly
with my hands; and indeed there is occasion for all our industry and
economy. You mention the removal of our books, etc., from Boston;[61] I
believe they are safe there, and it would incommode the gentlemen to
remove them, as they would not then have a place to repair to for study.
I suppose they would not choose to be at the expense of boarding out.
Mr. Williams, I believe, keeps pretty much with his mother.
“If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.”
I often lament it, that a man so
peculiarly formed for the education of youth, and so well qualified as
he is in many branches of literature, excelling in philosophy and the
mathematics, should not be employed in some public station. I know not
the person who would make half so good a successor to Dr. Winthrop. He
has a peculiar, easy manner of communicating his ideas to youth; and the
goodness of his heart and the purity of his morals, without an affected
austerity, must have a happy effect upon the minds of pupils.[153]
If you complain of neglect of education in sons, what shall I say with
regard to daughters, who every day experience the want of it? With
regard to the education of my own children, I find myself soon out of my
depth, destitute and deficient in every part of education.
I most sincerely wish that some more liberal plan might be laid and
executed for the benefit of the rising generation, and that our new
Constitution may be distinguished for encouraging learning and virtue.
If we mean to have heroes, statesmen, and philosophers, we should have
learned women. The world perhaps would laugh at me and accuse me of
vanity, but you, I know, have a mind too enlarged and liberal to
disregard the sentiment. If much depends, as is allowed, upon the early
education of youth, and the first principles which are instilled take
the deepest root, great benefit must arise from literary accomplishments
in women.
Excuse me. My pen has run away with me. I have no thoughts of coming to
Philadelphia. The length of time I have and shall be detained here would
have prevented me, even if you had no thoughts of returning till
December; but I live in daily expectation of seeing you here. Your
health, I think, requires your immediate return. I expected Mr. G----
would have set off before now, but he perhaps finds it very hard to
leave his mistress. I won't say harder than some do to leave their
wives. Mr. Gerry stood very high in my esteem. What is meat for one is
not for another. No accounting for fancy. She is a queer dame and leads
people wild dances.
“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation”
We knew not then whether we could plant or sow with safety,
whether where we had tilled we could reap the fruits of our own
industry, whether we could rest in our own cottages or whether we should
be driven from the seacoast to seek shelter in the wilderness; but now
we feel a temporary peace, and the poor fugitives are returning to their
deserted habitations.
Though we felicitate ourselves, we sympathize with those who are
trembling lest the lot of Boston should be theirs. But they cannot be in
similar circumstances unless pusillanimity and cowardice should take
possession of them. They have time and warning given them to see the
evil and shun it.
I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way,
in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to
make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and
favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power
into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if
they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the
ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold
ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.
That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly
established as to admit of no dispute; but such of you as wish to be
happy willingly give up the harsh title of master for the more tender
and endearing one of friend. Why, then, not put it out of the power of
the vicious and the lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with
impunity? Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us
only as the vassals of your sex; regard us then as beings placed by
Providence under your protection, and in imitation of the Supreme Being
make use of that power only for our happiness.
April 5.
I want to hear much oftener from you than I do. March 8th was the last
date of any that I have yet had. You inquire of me whether I am making
saltpetre. I have not yet attempted it, but after soap-making believe I
shall make the experiment. I find as much as I can do to manufacture
clothing for my family, which would else be naked. I know of but one
person in this part of the town who has made any.
“Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could.”
I feel very differently at the approach of spring from what I did a
month ago. We knew not then whether we could plant or sow with safety,
whether where we had tilled we could reap the fruits of our own
industry, whether we could rest in our own cottages or whether we should
be driven from the seacoast to seek shelter in the wilderness; but now
we feel a temporary peace, and the poor fugitives are returning to their
deserted habitations.
Though we felicitate ourselves, we sympathize with those who are
trembling lest the lot of Boston should be theirs. But they cannot be in
similar circumstances unless pusillanimity and cowardice should take
possession of them. They have time and warning given them to see the
evil and shun it.
I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way,
in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to
make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and
favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power
into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if
they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the
ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold
ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.
That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly
established as to admit of no dispute; but such of you as wish to be
happy willingly give up the harsh title of master for the more tender
and endearing one of friend. Why, then, not put it out of the power of
the vicious and the lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with
impunity? Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us
only as the vassals of your sex; regard us then as beings placed by
Providence under your protection, and in imitation of the Supreme Being
make use of that power only for our happiness.
April 5.
I want to hear much oftener from you than I do. March 8th was the last
date of any that I have yet had. You inquire of me whether I am making
saltpetre. I have not yet attempted it, but after soap-making believe I
shall make the experiment.
“Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.”
Many have turned out as
volunteers to work upon Noddle's Island, and many more would go upon
Nantasket, if the business was once set on foot. "'T is a maxim of
state, that power and liberty are like heat and moisture. Where they are
well mixed, everything prospers; where they are single, they are
destructive."
A government of more stability is much wanted in this colony, and they
are ready to receive it from the hands of the Congress. And since I have
begun with maxims of state, I will add another, namely, that a people
may let a king fall, yet still remain a people; but, if a king let his
people slip from him, he is no longer a king. And as this is most
certainly our case, why not proclaim to the world, in decisive terms,
your own importance?
Shall we not be despised by foreign powers, for hesitating so long at a
word?
I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies; for,
whilst you are proclaiming peace and good-will to men, emancipating all
nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives. But you
must remember that arbitrary power is like most other things which are
very hard, very liable to be broken; and, notwithstanding all your wise
laws and maxims, we have it in our power, not only to free ourselves,
but to subdue our masters, and, without violence, throw both your
natural and legal authority at our feet;--
"Charm by accepting, by submitting sway,
Yet have our humor most when we obey."
I thank you for several letters which I have received since I wrote
last; they alleviate a tedious absence, and I long earnestly for a
Saturday evening, and experience a similar pleasure to that which I used
to find in the return of my friend upon that day after a week's absence.
The idea of a year dissolves all my philosophy.
Our little ones, whom you so often recommend to my care and
instruction, shall not be deficient in virtue or probity, if the
precepts of a mother have their desired effect; but they would be doubly
enforced, could they be indulged with the example of a father
alternately before them. I often point them to their sire,--
"engaged in a corrupted state,
Wrestling with vice and faction.
“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”
“Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.”
“Great necessities call out great virtues.”
“Learning is the indispensable investment required for success in the information age we are entering”
“A little of what you call frippery is very necessary towards looking like the rest of the world”
Its never to late to get back on your feet though we wont live forever make sure you accomplish what you were put here for
My bursting heart must find vent at my pen.
Well, knowledge is a fine thing, and mother Eve thought so; but she smarted so severely for hers, that most of her daughters have been afraid of it since.
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
...remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
The natural tenderness and delicacy of our constitution, added to the many dangers we are subject to from your sex, renders it almost impossible for a single lady to travel without injury to her character. And those who have a protector in a husband have, generally speaking, obstacles to prevent their roving.
These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.
The habits of a vigorous mind are born in contending with difficulties.
I hate to complain...No one is without difficulties, whether in high or low life, and every person knows best where their own shoe pinches.
You tell me that you sometimes view the dark side of your Diana, and there no doubt you discover many Spots which I rather wish were erased, than conceald from you. Do not judge by this, that your opinion is an indifferent thing to me, (were it so, I should look forward with a heavey Heart,) but it is far otherways, for I had rather stand fair there, and be thought well of by Lysander than by the greater part of the World besides. I would fain hope that those faults which you discover, proceed more, from a wrong Head, than a bad Heart. Eer long May I be connected with a Friend from whose Example I may form a more faultless conduct, and whose benevolent mind will lead him to pardon, what he cannot amend.
