1243. CHILDREN, Happiness and.—[continued].
My expectations from
you are high, yet not higher than you may attain.
Industry and resolution are all that are
wanting. Nobody in this world can make me
so happy, or so miserable, as you. Retirement
from public life will ere long become
necessary for me. To your sister and yourself
I look to render the evening of my life serene
and contented. Its morning has been
clouded by loss after loss, till I have nothing
left but you. I do not doubt either your affections
or your dispositions. But great exertions
are necessary, and you have little time
left to make them. Be industrious, then, my
child. Think nothing insurmountable by resolution
and application, and you will be all
that I wish you to be.—
To Martha Jefferson.
Ford ed., iv, 374.
(1787)
