Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 1
With Pleasure I receivd yours of the 8th. Inst.1(on the 12th) & am obligd to you for the same & heartily rejoice at your Prosperity, that from a Land of Bitterness, surrounded with Thorns & Briars, you are remov'd to Canaan a Land of Pleasantness, & freindly to the Muses. Reflecting upon the Phenephilenik, I am agreably surprisd, to behold what Prosperity the greater Part of it meets with, You Lieunt. General of the Grammar Army in Boston, Father Dodge this Week to ascend the Rostrum & recieve Imposition of Hands &c. Thurston only waiting for a second Imposition (alias an Establishment) & then two H-y F-t-s2 (for us). That you may be serviceable in your Station, & gain the Applause of the great Arbiter of Heaven & of all around you Is the sincere Wish of your Friend & H
(P.S. In Haste & hope you excuse the Nonsense.) My Residence is in a Part of Hingham calld Cohasset, My School is small not exceeding 20. But wish I had a few of your Romanists alias Gram
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119Holy Fathers.
Apparently Tufts had only beginners and no advanced students in his Latin class.
I understand by my Brothr. that You wrote to me by him but he left the Letter, nevertheless I now write you an Answer in the first place asking pardon for not writing to you sooner since I have recd. so many Letters from You,1but Sr. You may depend upon my being more carefull to write for the future. Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis.2 It is impossible to conceive what a strange alteration there is upon the face of the Earth now from wt. it was the last Year, a prospect of sufficiency of fodder; which gladdens the heart of Man & to mention One thing particularly Your Neighbour Fuller has grown in bulk the 9/10 of an inch upon Mr. Grouts recovering from him only one Shilling for Damages, and may perhaps next Court and as it is thought, recover nothing; I shall between this and the next Opportunity prepare the best Accots. of every thing transacted which will contain about an 1/18 but may possibly be something diverting till then with all due Respects I Remain Your very huml. Servt.,
P.S. My Service to your Brother Greenleaf & Sister and all friends.
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The times change, and we change with them.
It is an unusial pleasure that I enjoy while I assume my pen to renew a Correspondence with you which to my great grief has been so long interrupted, by reason of the unfix'd state of our affairs. And first of all I must tell you, that I am A resident at the Revd. Mr. Parkmans,1where I enjoy not only the Advantage of his most Learned as well120as Christian Conversation; but also the pleasure & profit of perusing a Collection of Books not inferior to the best in the hands of any Country Minister nor do I imagine my priviledges less noble than those to be enjoyed at college, omnibus Considerandis Consideratis.2
However amidst these Advantages I find even as to the things of this world my happiness to be but incomplete whilst my bodily health is impared so that I am not able to prosecute my Studies with that Intenseness and Diligence as I Desire; and have this farther affliction to be destitute of pleasand conversation, and Dilightfull ambulation with you my good old Friend. But yet the first of these I hope is principally the effect of an Epidemic Cold which has prevailed in a most uncommon manner in great part of our wooden country. And as for the other I hope to have it in a great measure alleviated by frequent antidotes, & reviving cordials conveyd in black & white, all opportunities, from You.
As for news, I have only two pices to Acquaint you with, viz. first. that I had the happiness to be one of our REVEd. Dodges Auditors, two sabbaths ago, in the Revd. Mr. Parkmans pulpit. In the fore noon he preached from Prov. 3:17v. in the afternoon from Heb.2.3v he performd each exercise with a Decent behavioar and good Acceptance as far as I can learn;
Tempora mutantur et ille mutatur in illis.3
The other piece of news is that I went after Grafton ordination with Friend Dodge to see his amiable & truly beloved mistress Esqr. Goddards Daughter of Sutton,4 ilia est Nympha quidem parva et non minus quam palida. Heu quam illi (Dodge) dissimilis. Ah! magna cum parvis componere Solebit.5
Don't forget to give my Love & Service to your Relations, I mean yr. Brother & Sisters, and to all my kind Class-mates that you may see. I shall see you I hope at Commencement (numine annuente divino6) and till then remain as usial your Friend & humble Sert.
NB. Meministine puellae Lunenburgensis.
7
Ebenezer Parkman (1703–1782) graduated from Harvard in 1721 and was the first minister of Westborough. He kept a diary extending from 1720 through Dec. 5,1782 much of which is now121divided between the Massachusetts Historical Society and the American Antiquarian Society (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 6:511–527). The first part (1719–1755) has been published as The Diary of Ebenezer Parkman, 1703–1782, edited by Francis G. Walett (Worcester, Mass., 1974). In the entry for Apr. 30, 1750, Parkman notes: "When I came home, I found here Mr. Samuel Haven of Framingham who desires he may come and board at my House and study Divinity" (p. 215).
When all that should be considered has been considered.
The traditional proverb is Tempora mutantur et die mutamur in illis, The times are changed, and we are changed with them.
Mary Goddard (1725–1777) who married Ezekiel Dodge on Sept. 27, 1750. She was the daughter of Robert and Mehitable (Spring) Goddard of Sutton, Mass., and after Dodge's death in 1770 she married in 1774 Josiah Torrey, Esq., of Abington (Benedict, History of Sutton, p. 650).
She is a nymph, indeed, small and not less than pale. Alas how unlike him (Dodge). Ah, he will get used to comparing great with small.
With divine power assenting.
I remember the girl from Lunenburg.
Anthony Brackett (1708–1764), who kept the tavern on School Street is supposed to have lodged George Washington when as a Virginia colonel he was sent by Gov. Robert Dinwiddie to confer with Gov. William Shirley following Braddock's defeat in 1755 (Samuel Adams Drake, Old Boston Taverns and Tavern Clubs [Boston, 1917], 43–45).