Man
early discoverd this propensity of his Nature and found
"Eden was tasteless till an Eve was there."
Justice,
humanity and Benevolence are the duties you owe to society in general. To
your Country the same duties are incumbent upon you with the additional
obligation of sacrificeing ease, pleasure, wealth and life itself for its
defence and security.
To
your parents you owe Love, reverence and obedience to all just and Equitable
commands. To
yourself—here indeed is a wide Field to expatiate upon. To become what
you ought to be and, what a fond Mother wishes to see you, attend to some
precepts and instructions from the pen of one who can have no motive but
your welfare and happiness, and who wishes in this way to supply to you,
the personal watchfulness, and care which a seperation from you, deprives
you of at a period of Life when habits are easiest acquired, and fixed,
and tho the advise may not be new, yet suffer it to obtain a place in your
memory, for occasions may offer and perhaps some concuring circumstances
give it weight and force.
Suffer
me to recommend to you one of the most usefull Lessons of Life, the knowledge
and study of yourself. There you run the greatest hazard of being deceived.
Self Love and partiality cast a mist before the Eyes, and there is no knowledge
so hard to be acquired, nor of more benifit when once throughly understood.
Ungoverned passions have aptly been compaired to the Boisterous ocean which
is known to produce the most terible Effects. "Passions are the Elements
of life" but Elements which are subject to the controul of Reason.
Who ever will candidly examine themselves will
Adams,
Abigail. Letter to John Quincy Adams, March 20, 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 310-313.
