To Madam H Winthrop
Plymouth February 1773
My dear Madam
The desire of appearing in an advantageous light in the eyes
of our fellow creatures is I presume a laudable passion: and where that
ambition
prevails not in the highest degree, yet there is generally a wish to stand
well
in the opinion of those we most esteem. This may be the reason why they
are the last to discover any particular foible, to which their friends may
be
addicted.
This united with conscious inability of executing in a manner
deserving the approbation of the judicious, has made me studious to conceal
the
taste you have discovered for poetic composition. But as the secret is
disclo
-sed, and you had expressed a wish to see the description of your late
agree
-able eastern tour, in the dress of rhyme it excited a
similar inclination in
the bosom of one who has long been united, in sentiment, in affection, and
sim-
-pathy, both in the moments of your anxiety and your felicity. But
my
dear madam prone as are my sex (and indeed all mankind) to
vanity: I never
entertained so chimerical an idea as to suppose it in my power greatly
to amuse;- much less to benefit the world by the unstudied composition of
my leisure hours. I am gratified in the completion of my highest wish in
that respect, if enabled by my pen to give pleasure to a little circle of
very valuable friends if you had ever thought that my most sanguine
expectations
carried me beyond that line, would it not have been kind to have checked
the
fond imagination? I am sensible the world is already full of elegant
productions
that entertain the imagination and refine the taste; yet perhaps the world
is
little reformed even by the laboured treatises of
some very scientific phi-
-losophers; much less can it be expected from the airy compositions of
the
many superficial writers of the age. I would not willingly make an
ad-
-dition to the last useless class, and dispairing of eminence in the first
I rather choose my manuscripts should lie in the cabinets of my friends
to be perused when nothing more instructive or entertaining may offer.
The enclosed was attempted as the amusement of a lonely hour
and though not executed to my own satisfaction, I venture to put it into
the
hands of my friends at
Cambridge more as a mark of confidence in their
can
-dour than from an opinion of its merit. They will see thereby at least
that
I participated their pleasure, in their late journey to a
neighbouring state
I thank you for the descriptive view of the plentious fields and the
beau-
-tiful variety of prospects on your way.
The reflections of your compas-
sionate heart on the impending ruin which threatens the whole are
spirited and just, every uncorrupt mind must spurn the rod of oppression
held over this once happy people, and feel an honest indignation; when
Yet who can but pity at the same time they despise the nefarious group,
collected in another province to give sanction to measures without law, and
to carry into execution the wicked projects of administration*. [Asterisk reference mark indicates there is a note below.]
Can accumulated wealth or honour, make the enemies
of their
country happy? Has the moral sovereign that used to preside in every
breast, laid aside his sceptre in theirs, and left their minds in a state
of anarchy and darkness, without one friendly ray to lead them back
to the paths of duty and patriotism?
Tired of surveying the depravity
of human nature, let us reverse the medal. When we have seen the
splen
-did wretch, for the elevation of an hour sacrificing the rights of
posterity,
sickned by his ambition and avarice; let us contrast it with the rational
sat
-isfaction of the good man, who exerts all his talents for the benefit
of society.
We see his bosom tranquillized by a
conciousness that every step tends to
secure an immortality, where a full display of knowledge as well as the
perfection of virtue will open on his admiring soul. How sublime must
be the intervening pleasures of him who anticipate this felicity, whose
With my profound respects to the astronomer and philosopher
you will add my regards to my friend, and tell
Dr Winthrop I
hope
his visit will not be postponed until the arrival of the amiable
young gentleman he so warmly recommends, as the joys of life
are not sown thick enough for me to expect two such agreeable
events as a visit from him, and my son, should at once take place.
Tell him if you please it is my opinion "that Philolethes'
[Dagger reference mark indicates there is a note below.] prostituted
pen" can give
little consolation to the cankered bosom of the betrayer of his country.
The wounds of a goaded conscience cannot be healed by such
emollients, nor by pecuniary gratuities, sonorous titles, or the
flattering
tongue of the sycophant. He may throw over a shade but he cannot
thicken it sufficiently to cover the guilt of the delinquent.
Neither you
or Doctor Winthrop need to be told that my
mortification was equal
to yours, that we did not meet in the Capital: but after the firsts regrets
of disappointment subside, the delusory phantom hope is
ever
presenting something to our imagination that makes a kind of
[Asterisk reference mark] * an illegal court erected at Newport.
[Dagger reference mark ] Jonathan Sewall a notorious scribler in favour of Bernard and Hutchinson
balance, to the most mortifying incidents. Thus has she soothed my mind
on this occasion, by whispering that my friends will be more solicitous to
hasten
me a visit on the first opening of spring. But I feel a secret check
forbid-
ing me to depend on any thing so precarious as human life: yet here do
we
build;- and reversionary happiness beyond the gay prospects of time is
little
estimated because less realized by the narrow and contracted perceptions
of
man.