Taunton Feby. 25th. 1767 Dear No. 1,

I would as soon undertake to write a compleat history of the Stamp Act, my own life or a Body of Orthodox Divinity as answer in an ample manner one of yr. own Letters. When I got home I recd. your last & have been labring with the thoughts of an Answer ever since, not daring to attempt what must cost me so much time study & expence of Spirits. At last an Opportunity of conveyance approaching I set down to write what comes uppermost; when you get into yr. pensive Mathematical Moods & adhere to one head of Discourse a body may say yes or No & it leaves the mind in a kind of quondary. Theres a little learning for you, but whether so small a scrap will make so much as a Shift for yr. Naked Sentiments you must tell who understand those things.Ive been in a sort of delirium since I left you, such a kind of state as we may suppose of a Roman Catholic Soul before he gets to H--n H--ll or Purgatory. However I have bought Pomposity cloathed in Horse flesh, but have not yet proved him; & am so far prepared to run away. What still remains to compleat my Wishes is full as modest as yours, the discription of which made me think of this line "and give Humility a Coach & six" saving that you intend your Body shall be as naked as yr. Sentiments, for you say not a Word of Cloaths unless you call 'em Diet for the Body. Some Peoples Cloaths are food for Moths, Lice &c.; & some Cloaths for matter of Greese would be Diet sufficient to keep a human Creature from starving; but I rather think yr. sex includes them under Diet for the Mind, & truly having acquired yr. Catalogue of Necessarys, I know not what a rational mind could want more or better, unless the enlarged means of doing Good; what business you have to want the very things I do, I cant imagine?, rely upon it I am, except the aspect of the Room as much destitute as you, & quite as much puzzled to relieve my self; there's so391much Bran comes with the Wheat that I'm afraid to alter for fear of making bad worse and so I comfort my self with looking only.

In yr. last you told me of Strange Temptations you are under, which put me athinking, but this letter opens to me further grounds of Suspicion; I find you labour with Sentiments & are almost determind to make away with them because you have got no Cloaths for the poor little Rogues. Fye upon your Pride you had better act like

"one of Appollo's little Flirts

And dress 'em up in Doggrel Shirts"1

If Language is unkind to you, I would discard the false hearted wretch, or else sue him for Damages, & if yr. Words fly you, put out an Advertisement after 'em & when you catch 'em put 'em in Trammells & send 'em along to let me know.

If yr. Elbows want Room cut a hole in yr. Gown, or as sailors say take a sheep shank in 'em; you dont seem to want Composure; I think you Compose pretty well tho you nor Jno. Lock could tell how many 2 + 2 make. Thats a flight in yr. mathematical way & not in yr. skill at Composition; I often feell in the same mood of want of Composure, & begin to project this & that & tother, when in comes a Son of the Woods, is Lawyer Pane at home. At the rueful sound, away fly projects, doubts, Prospects & anxietys, & down to a little Consultation of some Body's else troubles, & in short I see so many people happier more miserable than my self that I never complain without being ashamed, but some alterations will be soon. Scoggins2 is to be hangd to morrow; But when or where or what I can no more devise, than yr. August the Biscuit seller & I had lik'd to have said dont much more Care; the hint in the P: S. of yr. No. 1. I am aware of, a long talk going home. I must stear to a hairs breadth, or right down afore the wind, but I want to fight first; you abuse me most egregiously to suppose that wn. I say that such a one is an ignorant Clouterheald Vain Proud Revengeful Malicious Tawdry stinking, selfish—or make any observations on Men & Manners, that I mean it as a lecture to you; however you do notoriously fail in one point I have long wishd & endeavoured you should attain, & that is yr. perfect Health; however but to return your Compliment of Lecturing, I must observe to you that I take your sly insinuation, in recomending to me to hire the Poarch of the Brick Meeting House3 for an office, (to say nothing of the wickedness of the thought, in making the old Brick Meeting House a house of Office ), for as you manifestly compare that Scituation with my392present you plainly allude to the Text "it is better to be a Door Keeper than dwell in the Tents of Wickedness"4; this is giving me a Lecture in Manner & form, for you have taken an appropriated Subject for it, & got as near the Pulpit as you dare. What shall I do on Thursdays? The Author who you say treats of hunting a Metaphor, is one I never Met-a-fore, & so can say nothing about him, nor can I tell what your genuine Bowl contain'd which you say you drank to enable you to write yr. Letter, for I cant read the word & so must suppose it to be some rare liquor which is not known to any but those who dwell in Tents that be taken down & put up again at pleasure, & so I cant return any Effects of the same draught but to invigorate me for this undertaking I took a good hearty Quid of the true genuine hgdrgadkgprwooonstond Tobbacco & think it has produced as much nothing about something as yr. genuine unintelligeable did something about nothing, & think I may now venture to subscribe myself yr. affectionate

No: 2

RC ; endorsed.

1.

Quotation not identified.

2.

Not identified.

3.

Following a fire in 1711, the congregation of the First Church, Boston, erected a new meetinghouse in brick in 1712–1713. Called the New Brick Church until the New North Church was built in 1714, when the First Church then became known as the Old Brick Church (Arthur B. Ellis, History of the First Church in Boston, 1630–1880 [Boston, 1881]).

4.

Psalms 84:10.