Westborough June 21. 1750 My Dear Friend,

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.

SAMLL. HAVEN

NB. Meministine puellae Lunenburgensis. 7

RC ; addressed: “To Mr; Robert-Treat Paine A.B.—in Boston (to be left at Mr. Brackets8) please to leave yr. Letters at Mr. Brackets"; endorsed.

1.

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).

2.

When all that should be considered has been considered.

3.

The traditional proverb is Tempora mutantur et die mutamur in illis, The times are changed, and we are changed with them.

4.

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).

5.

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.

6.

With divine power assenting.

7.

I remember the girl from Lunenburg.

8.

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).

Westboro' July 19th. 1750 Dear Sr.,

Since I saw you I receiv'd yours1which you won't wonder was very gratefull to me when I tel you, that every Thing that comes furnished with your Name in its Rear, Can't miss of a grateful Acceptance. But I would Thank you for it & so Dismiss it, and proceed to the business in hand viz.

First to See if you will according to proposal take a ride with me into Connecticutt this Septembr. which is at hand. Now you may be induced to it from two Motives. (1) Love to your Self. (2) Love to your Friend. Self Love will be an Incentive in that such a ride may probably be for the preservation of Life & emolument of your Health as also an inlargement of Knowledge and reciprocal Edification of the Historical part of your Scientific Edifice. Wc. brings me to say 2dly. you may be induced to it from Love to your Friend, in as much as I Shall participate in the same advantages for edification with the adjunction of your instructive & beneficiall Conversation. Wherefore I Shall dismiss this first article with only Desiring you to Consider well what has been Said and order your business accordingly.

(Thus far (I hope) innocent mirth).

122

But now, my Friend! let Me propose some thing more Serious and that is that you would write to me upon those Topicks which you told me you had Thoughts of doing: viz. Some things wc. occurred to your mind in Divinity by way of Objection or wc. were Dark and puzzling: not that I would intimate by this request that I am certainly able to Solve 'em or in any measure to teach you; but merely that I am a Searcher after truth, and would be glad to Know all argument pro & con in all parts of Theology. But I dismiss this particular also with a friendly Caution to be impartial in your Contemplation on those points, and proceed to the melancholy news of Thurston's Death 2 No doubt you had heard of it before, however I think it Deserves a second thought. Oh! how painful the Consternation how ineffable the grief when the mournful sound Thurston is Dead first Saluted my Ears. & even now the Idea can't be Erased from our minds if we Consider what particular relation he stood in to us as Class-Mates, and as of the Same Phoen philenici but in espical Manner as we are Embarqued in the Same Christian Cause. If we Consider farther that God has in his Righteous but aufull providence by the much lamented Death aforesd. removed from the world not a New but a Noble Light, from this Land one of her Youthfull but Spritly Ornaments, from Harvard a Dutiful Son from the Church a promising Teacher, and from us a Jonathan a Friend a peculiar Friend, well may each of us say Alas! Alas! my Brother. But the Subject is too Mournful, too Tender. May Almighty God grant that we may each of us so Consider that Already two of our Small Number are Dead 3 being in their full Strenght whilst their Breasts were full of milk and their Bones moisoned with marrow, as that we may be ready when ever that aufull moment shall approach when the King of Terrors Shall Seize us, and be able to rejoyce (as our Friend did) and say for us to live is Christ but for us to Die is gain. Unspeakable gain.

I am not in a very good State of Health, but would be Thankfull to Heaven for what I enjoy.

Please to Send a Line the first Opportunity, and give Love and respect where due. I Should be glad to See you but am uncertain when I shall have an opportunity at Boston. But this I am Certain of that I am your most heaty Friend and Sert.,

SAMLL. HAVEN

N.B. Please to convey the Enclosed.4

RC ; addressed: “To Mr: Robert-Treat Paine In Boston to be left at Mr. Brackets in School-House lane"; endorsed.

123 1.

Not located.

2.

Abijah Thurston died at Wrentham on July 8, 1750.

3.

William Whipple (1730–1750), the class orator, had died at his home in New port, R.I., on June 23, 1750.

4.

The enclosure has not been located.