Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 1
The constant remembrance and inexpressible regard I have for you, extorts from me these Lines tho' in the midst of hurry and preparation, and at the same time almost delirius with a cruciating Headach. But 'tis neither confusion nor anguish, tho' they hinder my necessary business, can prevail on me to forget the Man whose Image is deep engrav'd beyond the reach of Headach or the distraction of worldly business. Tho' I cannot from this perplexity transmit to you any regular Composition (the forc'd Machinery of the Brain) yet I can leave behind me, tho' in unconnected words, the warmest well-wishes, the sincere emanations of a Friendly Soul. Nor do I much regard the unpoliteness of my address, when I consider that your appetite chooses out the wholsomest meat, unmindfull of the Cookery.
My Friend, we now no more converse in the soft accents of Love, or the more rational strains of Friendship; Mars has forsaken Venus, and joining concert with Bellona, rouzes up all his Offspring to whirl the Javelin,304and right the cause of the injur'd Muses. Forgive me that I roil your peacefull Soul, or spoil the Symphony of your Lute with the harsh gratings of the Trumpet. I mean to leave my Friendship with you, that if I fall in the open Field, the unpolish'd sons of Fate mightn't trample on sacred things. Perhaps we shall never meet again in time, suppose the worst—why then my Friend, from the fiew seeds of Friendship already sown, must arise the Harvest of all our Friendly Joys in a better World; feign would I encrease it.
My uncouth soul requires much of your tender composition.
My Friend you stand the desire of the World, perhaps its envy; the benign disposition of your Soul subjects you to a thousand snares, and your natural Innocence blinds your Eyes from Danger. You are now scituated where folly comes cloathed in pomp, and Vice endues the most engaging appearance. Innocence will no longer protect you, for that is but the absence of Vice, and has not a resisting property. Agreeable quallifications (abstractly consider'd) such as pleasing Personage, Gentility, Adress, Affability, and universal Politeness, do but expose a Man to many alurements which take his mind from his Business, and fix it on folly, and draw his tho'ts from real improvements to pursue those steps which may end in Destruction. All these accomplishments without a regulating principle of Virtue, are like a fair Gale of Wind which will destroy a Vessell without a skilful Pilot at the Helm.
Forgive me, my Friend, if I tell you that you are now on the Equator, between the noblest accomplishments and improvements which will render a Man both acceptable and usefull, and the trifling effeminate embellishments which will render a Man despis'd by the wise and tho'tfull, and esteem'd only by his kindred Froath. Your talents and scituation are such as will render it difficult to avoid the pursuit of that pleasure, which however innocent, is nevertheless enervating and unworthy severer Studies. But I place great confidence