“I this morning received your affectionate letter,
and, at the same time, one from my brother and sister, who were very well when
they wrote. On Wednesday I received a lexicon, which I was very glad of. I
have, since that time, gotten to the 12th verse of the 14th chapter, which is
39 verses from the place I was in before. Mr. Clegg came
last Wednesday, and employed the time he staid in showing the Miss
Traceys how to find the latitude and longitude of any place,
which I can now do upon the globes with ease. Whilst he was here I was as
attentive as I could be. He came again on Saturday, and I came in a few minutes
after he came. I drank tea at his house the Thursday before, when he asked me
to prepare the map of Asia, which Miss Traceys were at
that time getting. I answered that I had already gotten it. I said it to him on
Saturday, with Miss Traceys, without missing a single
word. He, when he had finished with us, bid me have the map of Africa ready by
the next time he should come, which I have done. He also asked me to read a
dialogue with him, which I did. I should think he intends to teach me geography
while I stay. On Thursday he took me and George, with his
two brothers, to the glass-house, and then we went to the new fort. On Friday I
went to the play with Mr. Corbett, at whose house I dined
and drank tea. The play was ‘Love in many Masks,’ and the farce, ‘No Song, no Supper.’ It was very
entertaining, and was performed by some of
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“‘P.S. Papa desired me to remember him to you.’
“On Sunday, after I had come from Meeting, I went,
but not willingly, to Mrs. Sydebotham’s to
dinner. In the afternoon we went to church, for the first time I ever was
in one, and I do not care if I should never go into one again. The
clergyman, after he had gabbled
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“I shall have satis pecuniae, dum tu habeas opportunitatem, mittendi aliquam partem mihi.*
“I have this morning gotten my French for to-morrow, and thirteen verses of the ‘Testament;’ I have also written out the contractions, and can tell any of them. I said my lessons very well last night; I had only one word wrong in my fable, and not any one in my two verbs. I am to go to the concert to-night. I have written two verbs, and translated my French task. How ineffectual are all pleasures, except those which arise from a knowledge of having done, as far as one knew, that which was right, to make their possessors happy. The people who possess them, at night, lie down upon their beds, and after having spent a wearisome right, rise up in the morning to pursue the same ‘pleasures.’ or, more properly, vain shadows of pleasure, which, like Jacks with lanthorns, as they are called, under a fair outside, at last bring those people who are so foolish as to confide in them into destruction, which they cannot then escape. How different from them is a man who wisely ‘in a time of peace, lays up arms, and such like necessaries in case of a war.’ Mrs. Tracey desires me to give her respects.”
