a
vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. All History will
convince you of this, and that wisdom and penetration are the fruits of
expereience, not the Lessons of retirement and leisure.
Great
necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated
by scenes that engage the Heart, then those qualities which would otherways
lay dormant, wake into Life, and form the Character of the Hero and the
Statesman.
War,
Tyrrany and Desolation are the Scourges of the Almighty, and ought no doubt
to be deprecated. Yet it is your Lot my Son to be an Eye witness of these
Calimities in your own Native land, and at the same time to owe your existance
among a people who have made a glorious defence of their invaded Liberties,
and who, aided by a generous and powerfull Ally, with the blessing of heaven
will transmit this inheritance to ages yet unborn.
Nor
ought it to be one of the least of your excitements towards exerting every
power and faculty of your mind, that you have a parent who has taken so
large and active a share in this contest, and discharged the trust reposed
in him with so much satisfaction as to be honourd with the important Embassy,
which at present calls him abroad.
I
cannot fulfill the whole of my duty towards you, if I close this Letter,
without reminding you of a failing which calls for a strict attention and
watchfull care to correct. You must do it for yourself. You must curb that
impetuosity of temper, for which I have frequently chid you, but which properly
directed may be productive of great good. I know you capable
Adams,
Abigail. Letter to John Quincy Adams, January 19, 1780. Adams Family Papers,
Massachusetts Historical Society. Published in Adams Family Correspondence,
Volume 3: April 1778 - September 1780 (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 1973). Pages 268-269.
