If it be only to thank you for your favor of the 7th: I will devote an minute previous to the meeting of Court; I thank you also for the Walpole paper, which entertains and delights me more than any of the literary productions of the Country. If there were an Editor here of the same taste as the Walpole Bard, I should sometimes indulge an itching which besets me for scribling— I know not precisely in what strain I might indulge, but having a wide field before me full of rich vegetation & delicious fertility I could not long hesitate on what to bestow my mite of cultivation. Perhaps, with “the bee,” I might also “travel & expatiate.“1 But what encouragement is there to “cast pearls before Swine?” There is no taste, no relish for miscellaneous reading among the professional men of this place— I ask pardon of those who may be exceptions to the general rule—some there are, tho’ few— I dread these mere Lawyers & Doctors & Divines, they are of no use or amusement but to their respective fraternities, and yet they are emiment men—full of professional knowledge & formidable on their own ground—soaring high in their appropriate elements & only fit to dwell therein.

The high Court of Errors & Appeals will close its Session to day. Not much business has come before it, but two important questions of law particularly relating to our State practice & jurisprudence have been argued with great professional skill by the old ones of the Bar. My Master Ingersoll’s reputation stands unquestionably foremost on the list of worthies & able. He surpasses all the rest in some particulars & is inferior in none.2

This Court Consists of a large number of Judges—towit, The Chief Justice or President (Mr: Chew) Three Judges of the Supreme Court, and the Presidents of the Court of Common Please in all the Counties. As however the jurisdiction of this Court is only appellate, all cases brought before it by writ of Error from the Supreme Court, which have been there adjudged, can have no second opinion passed 514 on them by the judges of the Supreme Court. This circumstance has in one or two instances created embarrassment during this term, because the chief Justices health would not permit his attendance and there were only four Justices present besides the Supreme Court Judges, five being necessary to make a Court (a quorum) when the case to be heard had been previously adjudged in the Court below. Another Justice has been sent for from Lancaster & is expected on the bench to day. I have been in company with the strange Justices one of whom is Mr: Addison & was pleased with their conversation— Judge Rush (a brother of the Drs:) though a man of some Science & very federal is nevertheless, as Stockdale the English bookseller said to my father, of him, a thick sculled, water drinker.3 He thinks Buonaparte the most wonderful General that has appeared since Cresar— I observed that in my opinion the Arch Duke Charles was the superior man & General— He treated the observation rather slightly, by saying, the only time the two men were opposed to each other, the Arch Dukes laurels withered in an instant.— With warmth— I retorted—He nevertheless compelled the preliminaries of Leobon & had it in his power, if the fate of Vienna could have been risked on the event of a battle, to have anihilated Buonaparte & his Army. I have always understood otherwise said he, & there we stopped. I always get in a passion when I hear the french Idol of the day, extravagantly extolled by any other than a frenchman— The ephemeral butterfly will always dazzle an infantine imagination.

The little extract you made from a letter, makes amends for the groundless suspicion once excited by the same author. The last Sentence contains a truth to which every Son in the Country will give a ready assent & every reasonable parent will not refuse to concur in it.4 At the age of maturity, every man, in a free Country, is entitled to judge for himself, unless he is in a state of dependence. Men often judge erroneously even in things most interesting to themselves, but men are also wicked & commit crimes against positive commands to the contrary. Is this a reason for denying them the exercise of free will, on one hand or a good argument for dispensing with prohibitions against vice, on the other?

I go out of town this afternoon— A fresh alarm of the fever, these two days past has existed— A Son of F A: Muhlenberg, died of it yesterday & two more are sick, who were apprentices in the same Store in water Street.5 I think the public offices will soon remove.

I cannot make another journey this Summer, though it would give 515 me pleasure to pass it with you & the family at Quincy. If I remove from this State, it shall be the last time.

With best love to all, I remain / Yours in truth & sincerity

I know not how it is, but I always feel more spirits when I take my pen to write to you, than to any one else; I received a friendly Letter from dr Rush.1 the Good Gentleman endeavours to do away all the suspis he so innocently raised, and in doing it, your Father observed that it was ten to one. if he did not go to prateing to the Bishop or his daughters, and excite some Idea that he had been serious. he was not opposed to that or any other repu[tab]le Family, but only anxious that his sons should not [co]nnect themselves untill they could support themselves— [. . .]ow Thomas, as it respects you, I have never myself felt an anxious moment. I am for leaving you to act yourself, 516 well assured that you will weigh the subject maturely, and act judiciously. you are out of your teens, and you know what are the duties incumbent upon you. I am much more anxious for your Health, in that oven; if the fever should prevail, instead of taking up your residence in that bake House at Germantown, I desire you to step on Board a packet at Nyork and come to Quincy. if the fever takes possession of Philadelphia, you will find neither buisness or study so near the contagion; and you can return the same way, without being more expensive than your Board would be— your Father is of the same opinion— I hope to be able to go on this year to Philadelphia, and that early in the season, if the plague does not prevent it. my Health is getting better and fir[me]r I hope. I avoid all large parties. I should have been glad to have heard the oration upon the 4 July, but durst not venture, any more than to commencment. the President has been very good humourd, and gratified the citizens by going to Launching, to Election twice to the 4 July and now to commencment,2 but Boston folks think they can never have enough of a good thing, and as they run mad after their dear allies, they are now running Mad, at getting rid of them, and the Young Men of Boston must needs [to] celebrate the 7 of July, as a Memorable day—a day [. . .] dissolved our connection with France. an oration m[ust] be pronounced—and they must chuse a committe & send them out to request the President of the united states to attend young Men you will readily suppose—and this too at seven oclock of the morning of Commencment day—and these young Men must come up, total strangers, without any Body to introduce them, or make their Names known—and as ill luck would have it, a whole carriage of officers from the constitution must arrive at the same time—as unknown as the Young Men— a very Hot day, the P just returnd from a Ride—and all this you will say, was not well timed, or conducted— the invitation was improper, the refusal not so well modified as I wish’d, the young men mortified, I felt it. I wanted to have accommodated the negative to their motives, which tho not judicious, were well meant; a sudden institution for celebrating an event, which tho fortunate to our Country, ought not to be sanctiond by the presence of the Head of the Nation, whose every public act, must be scrutinized both at Home, and abroad— young Men for action, old men for Counsel—3

I was much amused with a reply to a Letter of the s——y of W——rs the other day, and I could not refrain sending it you, but you must not whisper it. little Mac, with great importance, as tho he was 517 addressing a young Man just entering upon Life—asserts what is of the most essential importance towards supporting the dignity and independance of the Nation—4

when you want to write me secreets as I know you sometimes do— inclose under cover to William— he says he sent you an oration. it is a Handsome thing—5 all the good folks in Quincy send abundance of Love— So does your affectionate / Mother