"
If nature, in spite of us, did not take care of herself, we could not
but be perfectly wretched. Philosophy is the emptiest word in the
dictionary. And you may observe, wherever you find them, that those
persons who profess to place all their reliance upon it, under every
affecting circumstance of life, do but make use of the term as a mask
for an iron heart. "But" (as the devil said on another occasion) "put
forth thine hand, and touch his bone, and his flesh, and he will curse
thee to thy face." They have as little fortitude as anybody when
sufferings pinch home upon them.
Thus have I relieved a heart that perhaps felt a little too full; and
if it is at the expense of my _head_, I have nevertheless the
consolation that it will be received only as the overflowings of my
present feelings.
"When and where shall I see you again?" somebody once asked me. The
Lord only knows. Perhaps at the election at Hartford. If we can meet
_there_--there will be time for notice. But, happen as it may, be
assured that I am your most sincere friend,
JONATHAN BELLAMY.
"Stick my compliments in for him," says Hannah Phelps, a jolly girl of
fourteen.
FROM MATTHIAS OGDEN.
Elizabethtown, March 18th, 1775.
Since we last saw each other, the 15th of April has been my mark, but
the receipt of yours of the 12th has blotted it from my memory, for
which nothing could atone but the expectation of seeing you here
nearly as soon.
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