Letter to John Hall, Philadelphia, November 21, 1806
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I should deserve to be entirely discarded from your good opinion
if I
did not take an early opportunity of replying to your last
kind letter just
received. I sincerely hope you will not allow a
negligence which is constitution
al & impartial which
has lately found some excuse in the pressure of a
good deal of
business, to exclude me from your friendship. I will not
promise
to do better for the future, because the strongest
resolutions are sometimes unavail
=ing, & promises unexecuted
are only covert insults.
I do not recollect to have objected to the title of your
lucrubrations.
The
latin word Adversaria, though I see no
etymological reason for it, has been always
applied to the use
which you have made of it. A certain Dutch Latinist who
once
attempted to find good Roman words for all the terms
Spheazes
used among
merchants
employed with great propriety, the term Adversaria for a Ledger; matters
of
account being there arranged, as we all know, in opposition to each other
My Library
is not rich enough to contain the Lexicographic treasury of Henry
Stephens, but I suppose old
Lagun did not overlook it when he
was raking
his learned heapthere I
did find it. together & I'll look for it there. I cannot
imagine
where else you, my friend, chanced to light upon it. There are
few, even among
Erudites
themselves, who look to any more ancient or more trustworthy
guide
thro the labyrinths of
Greek & Latin than Lehrevelius &
Ainsworth.
I, indeed,
having neither of these, am obliged to rely, for my Latin, on an old
worm
eaten dictionary of Latin, Greek & English of the
seventeenth century completed
by one
Thomas Holyoke,
or, as he himself translates his name,
Thomas de
Sacra
Quercu, alias
Holiokeus.
You mention that a number of the mag. was still due at Baltimore
I believe the delay has
arisen from want of paper, at any rate, this no fault
going to be metamorphosed, from a monthly, to a semiannual affair. Whether
it will lose by this change, or gain, in any other respect than in intrinsic value
I cannot foresee. Conrad thinks it will benefit, as to vendability, this opinion is
sufficient to influence me tho' my labour, especially the labour of reflexion, will
be greatly augmented. The work is, as nearly as possible, to take the shape of
the British Annual registers, & to consist of the various departments to be found
in them. I am just going to prepare a prospectus, which, when published,
you will see, of course: permit me to request your sentiments as to the eligibi
=lity of this plan. The mag: has now subsisted more than three years: a very
long life for an American publication of this kind. It is quite time that it
should die, in the order of Nature; of pure old age.
You have reason to say that experience has justified your sticking
close to
your profession when the first or second year gives you
twelve or fifteen hundred
dollars. This is a success which not
one young man among an hundred can
boast of, even after five
or seven years of probation. I should sincerely
grieve if I were
to see your attention even divided by any other object
than law,
I mean any literary object, for it is in vain to pray against
the
intrusion of every diverting or seductive phantom without exception
There
is one phantom from whose visits at your gravest or
busiest moments, it is not
possible, nor perhaps desirable to
guard you. I mean woman. Your age & your
constitution of
mind will never allow you a moment perfect tranquility or so=
ber application till you are married.
Your friends Merediths destiny, I see,
provokes
an Eheu!, but I suspect there is more
of envy than of pity in the
sigh. When I hear you are married I
shall rejoice. When I have discovered
what kind of wife you
have got, my joy may be converted into grief, or it
may be
raised into higher joy; but that you are married is, so far, good
news
This subject always reminds me of an old ditty of my own
inditing in my versifying days.
But marry at any rate, that's the best plan.
Let the girl be no widow, nor wanton nor shrew
But all are far better than no girl for you—
If your parents say yes, where your fancy says nay
Never haggle, but let the old folks have their way—
If you spurn at sixteen & take sixty you're mad
But take Sixty, if sixty alone can be had.
A wife is the fount of all good or all evil
She's an angel to bless, or to curse you a devil,
Her bosom's a coffer overflowing with treasure
Of woes without end, or of Joys without measure;
Yet no man, till married, can tell, for his life,
Whether heaven or hell be his lot in a wife:
Whether nectar shall lave him or Brimstone shall burn,
Till he passes the gulf which allows no return:
Her dust may prove gold, or her gold may prove dust,
But take her, my good boy, for take her you must—
You will probably think the council as
poor as the terms in which it is
conveyed;— but, seriously, & in plain prose, I assure you that I
shall be
extremely glad of an opportunity to wish
you joy of a wife. You'll never
be at ease, nor settle down into
a good thorough going lawyer till you
have one.
Letter to John Hall, Philadelphia, November 21, 1806
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