If words could express the gratitude I feel for your kindness to me, & my Children, it would be worth while to delineate it upon paper, but as I am sure the attemt would be vain, I can only beg of him to reward you a thousand fold, who alone knows your particular wants, & can amply supply either body, or mind, out of his rich treasury—

I sent for Cousin Charles to spend the Sabbath with me, he came, but the account he gave of his Sister Mary, gave me no reason, to expect her recovery. I am distressed for you all— Sickness & death casts a gloom over every Object— I have been led to ask, are these the beauteous prospects which my Eye was wont to dwell upon with pleasure, & delight? are these the same Birds whose melodious notes ravished my attentive ear? have I food & raiment as usual? have I kind friends? yes—but it is circumstances, it the mind that gives the tincture to every surrounding Object—& it is astonishing what an effect it has, when the heart is pierced with the sharp thorns of adversity. those things which once gave us the greatest pleasure, often become the objects of our aversion—& we daily find, more, & more the necessity of cultivating a calm, placid state of mind—a mind disposed to find comfort, will never want occasion it may be culled, even from a thorny Bush— And if our situation is not exactly what we wish, we must rejoic, that it is no worse—

Mr Smith came here a Wednesday, preached half the day yesterday for Mr Peabody, he is gone to take a walk with him, & I have 79 been involuntary led to some remarks, resulting from past scenes, which I have some mind to keep at home—but as I have not time to write further, you must read them as the ebbulitions of an heart that has experienced more viscissitudes, & trials than I hope will again be the portion of your Sister—1

Tho I have not heard from you since I wrote you last, and have nothing new to say, unless it be a resital of my own perplexities, out of which I must get by myself. Yet a few lines will assure you that I am getting forward as fast as possible with my affairs, and prepairing to sit out on my journey. the weather has been as uncommonly cold and stormy for the week past, as it was Hot for two days the week before. we have a snowstorm, of some inches Depth, which has lain for three days. it has retarded our Buisness on the farm and chilld our exertions. the sudden changes have confind Your Mother and brought on one of her old Lung complaints the good old Lady is sure she shall dye now her Physician & Nurse is about to leave her, but She judges with me, that all ought to be forsaken for the Husband. it is an additional care and anxiety for me. I shall provide for her comfort every thing necessary before I leave her. Mary Smith is yet living. of how uncertain a duration are all our worldly possessions, and Earthly comforts? if we could not look for brighter scenes and fairer prospects, who could wish to remain the victims of pain and sorrow? mr otis has lost his son George with a dropsy in his Head.1

I have just been reading chief Justice Elsworths Charge to the Grand jury at New York!2 did the good gentleman never write 80 before? can it be genuine? the language is stiffer than his person. I find it difficult to pick out his meaning in many sentences. I am sorry it was ever publishd— how I run on. the Federilist say there is but one blot in Your Character. the Chronical has undertaken to praise and the Jacobins to speak well.3 the snare will not hold action will soon break it— critical are the Times. may you get valiently through them.

yours for ever