I have read with indescribable satisfaction the several supplements
received from you, often have they checked the sigh of despondency (as it was
wont to escape my dejected bosom,) and
expelled exhilerated my spirits to an estatic summit. Yet
Tom [in]
the midst of the enjoyment I could but notice your graphic and orthographic
deficiencies,
2 They
are not by any means the farthest from perfection of all those which have come
under my observation, but still there is room for improvement.
And Rest assured that to write
handsomely and correctly will be in some measure a great surety in after life,
with a little care you have it in your power to acquire both. Endowed by
omnipotence with understanding, Blest with opportunities
3
sufficient, your numerous friends are stretching [out their] arms to assist
you, and though they have not themselves made great progress in the paths of
science and fame, yet their every exertion is used to get you on the grou[n]d
they occupy,
and then give you a shove
and send you,
Jehu
like,
4 on that road whose
end is perfection, Run
Tom,
scale the mount and seize the crown,—The
anxiety which I feel in your welfare has caused me to write thus plain to you,
When I see you in an error, concience
would forbids me pass[ing] it [in] silence, when I behold a
want of counsel, affection breaks the bands of restraint and bursts forth in
that a pure and fraternal strain, Cold indeed would be the heart of that
brother which
acts otherwise,
refuses advice but colder still the heart that
disdains and contemns the advice—brotherly given, Remember this
Tom, and
peruse these broken yet fervent sentences with the same spirit in which they
were written.
It is but at intervals that I can write, for I have not absolutely
one half hour in the day, except as pass to meals, The hour for recreation from
eleven to twelve. This I employ in study and leave it for others to be hooping
in the bandy field, and growling at the battery,
5 I
never have studied half as hard in my life, and this I do from a feeling sense
of the oblagations, which I am under to myself, beloved parents, and country,
Yes
Tom
these are the objects which impel me to my present course, many sleepless hours
have I spent in these delightful college walls, nor have they been spent
only at my solitary desk wile pouring over the
laborious
studies for
the
morrow, but even after the glimmering rays of the candle had ceased to
dazzle my drooping eyes, the clock tolling the midnight hour, would find
Somnus fast
bound by the chain of reflection, Should I proove unworthy of the priviledg[e]
allotted me! Should my mind be so completely curtained with dark[ness] and
fettered to inconsistency, as to act so base a part! He[ave]n forbid! If my
opportunities continue, nothing but a want of health shall cause me to quit
this sacred temple of—
Minerva (alias
this university) nor shall my exertions be remitted, until like
Hercules, I
shall
have gained a glorious victory over the
monsters, or through some unhappy wound they shall have expelled me from the
battle field,—My Dear
Tom my
ideas here grow more copious, I fear I shall weary your patience, The more I
write the longer I wish to continue it, I am glad the insurrection is quelled,
6 we
have formed a volunteer company here,
7 and
have in our possession 65 muskets sent us by the
G[oveno]ur
, I with four others, was appointed by the
students to draw up a constitution, and have been elected first Lieutenant, I
must now close my letter, I should not have had
time to write this, but our tutor snapped this evening,
8 some
say he had forgotten to jump out of his tub of water untill the bell had rang
& thus I obtained an hour this evening, the 1st
time (that is the position in which he studies) I want to say much but no
time. Give my love love to all the boys & all my friends, and write me
again in 2 weeks, if you don't I shall think hard of you. Excuse the mistakes
& errors of your feeble