BostonAugt. 27 1756 Sr.,

I watchfully expected you to Town this Term, but to my Sorrow am disappointed. Be that as it will I hope you have not been destitute of happiness of some sort or Another. Of my Self I can only say I have Attended Court till I am almost beat out with Courting & can truly Say 'tis the hardest work I ever did in my life. Even so dispiriting, that nothing but the hopes of having Judgmt. to take the Body can any ways support me through it. But how dismal must it be when one has been long Attending & practicing the various Arts of Courting to have the Court Adjourned without day. I hope Neither of us will be so Unfortunate as to have Our Happiness (that greatest of all Causes) lay at the Mercy of An Arbitrary Judge.

I expect this Letter will find you preparing for a very joyous Solemnity. I wish Some unknown Misterious Power might transport me among you at that time, but it cant be. Present my Sincere regards & Well wishings to the New-Married Couple.1 May the Cords be Silken & the Bonds be Love! May all the Joys wch. the fancy of Poets have been Able to paint & all the Sweets wch. the most happy in that state have ever experienced be their Unalloyd Potion.

Mean while my freind you & I, like two Pillars of Celibacy, Stand it out to Show the World what all might be. (that heroic!). Brace up yr. Soul, for I feel my Self this very moment tottering. I am just now half a Convert to Matrimony, like an Infidel I rather Wish there were no Joys than disbelieve them. Tis Nought but resolution can support me, & so I'm sure theres no Sweets, no Joys, 'tis all a cheat, a sham, a bite on the public. But alas George, while I rave, & fret & call in my invincible Argument of Obstinacy, Resolution & Madness to support me my very Blood throbs thro' my Veins & gives me the Lye.

I happen to write on this Subject at a very unlucky Moment. My Respects to your whole Family, not forgetting the Bishop,2 who is our well approved Patron in the Single State. Tho Absent from you I shall really partake with you the next week, & make my Self quite happy by fancying you are all so. I add no more, but assure you that notwithstanding some small foibles Which oft overtake the most resolute Man I stand true to my Cause & am —

Dft ; addressed "To George Leonard jr. Esqr."; endorsed: "To GL on his Sister's Marriage 1756."

1.

Leonard's sister Rachel (1727–1805) married David Barnes (1732–1811) on Aug. 5, 1756. Barnes later became the sixth minister of the Second Parish of Scituate (now the First Parish of Norwell), Mass. (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 13:189–194).

2.

This was probably Joseph Palmer (1729–1791), the second minister of the First Parish of Norton, Mass., who married Sarah, daughter of William Eames of Hopkinton, on Mar. 10,1757 (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 12:197–199).