I received your agreeable birth day tribute the day following the date of my last; since then the deadly pestilence has burst forth again with ten fold violence & every part of the City is more or less infected.1 The inhabitants are flying in every direction & not a room 543 is left unoccupied at Germantown. I go there but seldom. The Banks & other public Offices are soon expected. New York, we understand, is equally afflicted & alarmed. Another mournful Autumn menaces on all sides, & yet the weather seems favorable to an high degree of health in the Country. I shall not expose myself to fever infection, so, be of no concern for me;2

I had heard nothing of the pamphlet you mention, but am desirous of seeing it, wicked & abandoned as it is— Barloe is deep in the mysteries of modern philosophy— He is not only a deliberate plodding villain, but of slender intellect— His mind was never capable of a manly thought on subjects of government— Poets in general are the worst of politicians— they are by trade & occupation worshipers of ideal images, dealers in fiction, builders of air born castles & master workmen only in the edifices of Parnassus’ sumit. These things belong not in any manner to the Science of Government. In France indeed, under the mockery of Republicanism, the Chénier’s the Beaumarchais’s have prostituted their muses to the vile purpose of blasphemy & Atheism—3 In Republican france, Poets may be legislators, for the Republic originated in fraud, has been maintained by violence & yet exists only in imagination. All these things appertain to Poetry. Ergo a poetical form of Government is the most arbitrary, absurd & monstrous that ever prevailed among mankind. Who but a frenchman would have endured a rhyming race of governors & legislators?

The above is about on a level with the reasoning of Tom Paine in “Age of Reason part 2d:” wherein he levels aims all the shafts of his railery & gibes at the Bible— He dwells much on a conceit which he thinks original, in both parts of this work, viz— That prophet, originally meant nothing more nor less than poet, and that the prophesies are only poems in the Eastern style, which deals much in allegory fable & parable, so that to sanctify these poems by calling them prophesies & respecting them as authentic traditions of the word of God; is solemn mockery.4 Well, I have proved that the french nation have in latter days pay’d more respect than any other to these sort of folks called poets, by admiting them to give laws to their Country, & therefore france is incontestably more culpable in retaining a reverence for impostors than all the world besides.

I hope Dr: Hopkins is not ranked among the fraternity, though he is rather a visionary than otherwise in some of his opinions. His professional reputation at Hartford is very good.5

I got a letter from JQA. dated 29 April, a day or two since— It was 544 brought by a vessel that was carried in & detained a month in England, but was finally liberated, being freighted with a cargo for Government. 6 The subject of this letter is business merely, on the details of which I shall write shortly to my Mother— I have no letter from her later than the 4th: currt:.

Truxton insinuates that he has been coaxed to go out after another Monsieur friggate— I dont believe this would have been done if the S of N— had felt himself unconscious of promising more than he had a right to do on the subject of rank. He is resolved to persist in his resignation. He has a right so to do, but he is preparing chagrin discontent & torment for himself during his life, by the obstinate exercise of it. Discipline must be established at the outset, for the vices & errors of infancy are hard to correct in maturer age. Our Navy is the most hopeful & promising of our Country’s offspring & I hope it will be trained up in the nurture of due subordination to its parent authority. A really good & valua[ble o]fficer or servant, is he that unites courage, capacity, humanity & humility, but how rare is the association complete! I wish Truxton well, but older & abler must not be overlooked, however they may have been eclipsed by a fortunate & well timed adventure.

Dear William you write a very slovenly hand and you spell shockingly ill— Truth is sometimes disagreeable, but ought not therefore to be disguised— She is, you know, the only female that wants no fig leaf to cover her nakedness.

I am dear William sincerely / Your’s

I have no letter from you later than the 4th: which I mention only because the interval is a little longer than usual between your communications and lest any you might have written may have miscarried. From William I got a packet on Saturday, after my letter of that day was sent to town, otherwise, I should have acknowledged its receipt.1 In J Russells paper of the 15th: which he enclosed me, I perceive a very handsome letter addressed to Peter Porcupine by a New England man, on the subject of expunging from the new edition of his works which he proposes to publish by subscription, the illiberal, accrimon[ious] & unprovoked attack upon the character of Joseph Priestly. I co[ncur] so fully in the sentiments of this writer on that subject, that I hope [. . .] may take the whim of inserting the letter with his “Observations on the Emigration” &ca: if he will not adopt the advice of the writer in the other particular, which there is little reason to think he will. Can you guess who the New Englandman is?2

I have received the letter on the subject of my brother’s affairs, which he refers to in his last to you.3 It is very explicit & intelligible as a letter of instructions and I have the satisfaction of having anticipated compliance with a great part of the injunctions. His letter is dated April 29th: at which time he had received only my two first numbers, which contained little of the detail of my transactions in his affairs; my two next letters were filled with little else. From one of your letters he had collected information, which detected a considerable error in the account rendered by his Boston Agent in July 1798, in which the instalments on the shares in the Middlesex Canal are charged to my brother as paid; that is, the 30th: instalment fell 546 due 18th: July and is charged—no payment was made subsequent to that and the time of his delivering up the papers, but instead of two hundred dollars only one hundred could have been due for four month’s assessments on five shares, of course payments for four months prior to July must have ceased and yet they were charged as paid— How to repair this mistake would puzzle wiser heads than mine, unless the extremity of the law were put in force.

The Minister say’s to me, “You will never think yourself entitled to betray my confidence, because I am your brother, or to ruin me, because I cannot take the law of you.” Such an insinuation would have hurt my feelings, had I been less acquainted with his character or my own— But he has had ample occasion to speak plain to those whom he entrusts with his affairs.

The fever prevails in the City to an awful degree, considering the earliness of the season—the mortality is equal to the same period of the last year. Our house is full of fugitives, but we are entirely free from danger.

I have recently become acquainted in the family of Mr: Hare, who has a pretty seat in this neighborhood. I dined there last week and was much gratified with the conversation of the elder & younger branches of the family. Mr: Hare told me that I reminded him of my Father as he was more than 20 years ago, when he lodged in the same house with him at Mrs: Yards in Philadelphia— “I recollect your father wore his hair then much as yours is now.” Did he, indeed Sir, said I, the information is very acceptable to me and shall not be lost, for I have been somewhat persecuted since my return on account of the cut of my hair. Young Mr: Hare observed, he supposed because it was democratic.4 Mrs: Powell whom I saw last evening desired me to present her best congratulations on the reestablishment of your health— The widow looks as youthful & blooming almost as her niece Miss Hare.5 The gift of tongue seems to pervade every branch of this family.

Present me kindly to my Father for whom the annecdote of the crop is particularly related & to whom you will please to read it / for your Son