I received your answer, & permission, with much pleasure;1 & should not have delayed this expression of it so long; but thro’ necessity. An extensive, &, in many instances, fatal sickness has prevailed among my Parishioners, & together with no small share of the same calamity in my own family, has engrossed almost all my attention & duty.

The unmerited testimonies of esteem, contained in your letter, are such, sir, as, from any person of reputation, must excite very pleasing, perhaps vain feelings, in the mind of a poet; but, from you, They come with a weight wholly peculiar. I will endeavour, that they may become the means of exciting industrious exertions to render myself less undeserving, & will at least strive to merit good will, from the hands of men established in reputation.

The work, which I offer to the public, is intended to be of use to my country. If it should have any effect, I flatter myself, it will be a favourable one, on the great interests of mankind. I am, perhaps, enthusiastically attached to the state of society in New England. To recommend this object, in its prominent features, to the World, especially to the people of New England themselves, is the purpose, at which I aim. Poetry seemed to me a manner of writing, in some degree fitted to catch the attention, & the heart. As subjects of this nature have not commonly been treated, in poetry, I hoped, that this circumstance of novelty would contribute to make the impression more interesting. A great proportion of readers, & among them many, who have a vote in our political affairs, are scarcely enough attached to examination, to go patiently through an accurate & continued argument. Yet such readers may be advantageously addressed, & affected, by a book suited to their taste. Possibly, also, there are few persons, who do not feel a sentiment, scarcely in it’s nature disputable, more deeply, in a strong poetical exhibition of it, than they would feel a cooler prose argument. With such views I have written; or rather aimed at publication; for I had originally no aim, beyond my own amusement.

The threatening approach of war has, at times, almost made me repent proposing it to the public, for a subscription, but, as the horizon is clearing, the prospect is more favourable.

Should Congress break up, without doing the public any further harm, the arts of peace will have much reason to rejoice; & the friends of peace will generally feel themselves not a little indebted to those independent & honest men, in the American Legislature, who have saved us from war, anarchy, & depravation, & from becoming the Western Department of France. May God bless & reward them!

With every wish for your prosperity in your public & private concerns allow me, sir, to subscribe myself with sentiments of the highest respect, your very obedient, & most humble servant,

your favour of the 25th of last month, came to my hands yesterday and I am glad to find you so well pleased with your Retirement— I felt the Same delightful Satisfaction after my Return from Europe; and I feel still every summer upon my little farm all the Ardour, and more than all the ardor of youth: to such a Degree that I cannot bear the thought of writing or reading, unless it be some trifle to fill up a vacant half hour.

The Case of the Pays de Vaud is curious enough. Dr Cart the Writer of the Book I sent you is arrived at New York. and Mr Rosset whose Tryal and Sentence for high Treason, for dining at a civic feast and drinking two or three Patriotic Toasts, is mentioned in it, is here at Philadelphia. He has lent me in Manuscript a full account of his Tryal. As much as I have ever detested an Aristocratical Government, I did not believe that the Canton of Berne could have been So tyrannical, till I read this Manuscript.

I think nevertheless that “the Rights of one Generation of Men must Still depend, in some degree, on the Paper Transactions of another.” The social Compact and the Laws must be reduced to Writing obedience to them becomes a national Habit and they cannot be changed but by Revolutions which are costly Things. Men will be too Œconomical of their Blood and Property to have Recourse to them very frequently. This Country is becoming the Assylum of all 287 the ardent Spirits in Europe. The Bp. of Autun and Mr Beaumez, are arrived and Dr Priestley is expected.

The President has sent Mr Jay to try if he can find any Way to reconcile our Honour with Peace.1 I have no great Faith in any very brilliant Success: but hope he may have enough to keep Us out of a War. Another War would add two or three hundred Millions of Dollars to our Debt: rouse up a many headed and many bellied Monster of an Army to tyrannize over Us; totally dissadjust our present Government, and accellerate the Advent of Monarchy and Aristocracy by at least fifty years.

Those who dread Monarchy and Aristocracy and at the Same time advocate War are the most inconsistent of all Men.

If I had your Plantation and your Labourers I should be tempted to follow your Example and get out of the Fumum et opes strepitumque Romæ2 which I abominate.

I am sir with much Esteem your / Friend & sert