Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 1
The few moments that I had the pleasure of your Company this week does but increase my desire to See you again, the Malencholy disposition than you were in when you came down has given me 40great uneasyness. I have fear'd a thousand things for you; and I Long to know how you are in health for that is my greatest Concern.
I have Sent your Linnin and other nesesarys to you by the Bearrer and beg you to write me word how you are as to all your Curcumstances. Father is not Come home nor the Councill1 is not dissmiss'd, therefore I wou'd not have you Come down till the begining of the next week, and untill that time I shall wait with impatience. Your Sincere Friend & Loving Sisster,
PS Pray send me word how your Class mates that were Sick are now, & dont Expose your health by watching2 too much. I design to send John Willards3 with your things.
Thomas Paine acted as a representative of the Old South Church at a council requested by the Church in Medfield to settle a matter of discipline (Hamilton A. Hill, History of the Old South Church (Third Church) Boston, 1669–1884, 2 vols. [Boston, 1900], 1:597).
Attending a sick classmate.
John Willard (1732/3–1807), a second cousin of RTP and brother of Joseph Willard, later president of Harvard. His college costs were covered by his great-uncle Province Secretary Josiah Willard, and he probably spent time with that family who lived near the Paines. John Willard graduated from Harvard in 1751 and was later the minister at Stafford, Conn. (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 13:158–162).
Seria Sunt praeferenda.2
I received yours of Decembr.*3 wh. was matter of great joy to me not ondly on account of the excelent Sentences of piety & Sure Charecteristicks of your friendship; but allso on account of the Circumstances of it's arival to me. Serious things have ben the Chief Subject of my meditation Since the mallencolly hower of our Seperation & when your litter Came to my hands I was contemplating on Death & the grave & your litter much assisted my meditations on that Subject. Another circumstance Sir which indear'd your letter to me (viz) It had the fortune to be perused immediately before Haven's fabulus Letter but let me joyne with you & Say these are trifling.
As to your desire that our Souls might have the Same Christian bond 41of unin that J-hn & Da—d had I can truly say my desires answers yours as face answers face in a glass
O utinam! condicipule mihi Semper amande quod animæ nostræ amore Christiano ac amissica Semper Conjungantur et in precibus ardentibus pro gratia ac Cognitione alius pro alio uniantur. levitatem meam dum tecum essim versatus o! Charesseme amice, mihi Candide Condona.4
O! Sir I hartely agree with you that a Constant remembrance of each other in our prayers is the best pledge of love & friendship quod tu nullo modo mihi negabis humilime Spero.5
Pardon me if I tell you that my hurry of business forbids me to write any more at present ondly to beg one request of you wh. I shall insert by way of post Script wh. request if you'l answer you'l oblige your most affectionate friend & Souls well wisher,
PS Sir I got a Cold in my legg a rideing home & it is very bad Non Solum in Specie Sed etiam in re non in imagine Sed in Ipso facto ergo6 as I expect Mr. H——k7 will ask after me I desire that you would enform him how the Case is and if you hear of his asking after me in your absence be pleased to inform. Give my hearty love to the Pheniphylenick Club quod in unitate et literarum grecarum peritia et in Lingua romanorum eligantissime Colloquendo invigiat Creseatq: indies ex imopectore opto.8
*without date
B—h. Unidentified.
Serious things are to be preferred.
Not located.
O would that, fellow disciple by me, always to be loved, our souls should always be joined by christian love and friendship and may be united in ardent prayers for favor and knowledge, one for the other. Candidly pardon, o dearest friend, my levity while I was with you.
Which you will in nowise deny to me, I most humbly hope.
Not only in appearance but also in actuality, not in a representation but in the fact itself, therefore.
Hancock, i.e. Tutor Belcher Hancock.
Daily from the depth of my heart I desire that in unity and skill of Greek letters and in conversing most elegantly in the language of the Romans it may become strong and grow.