THE AUSTIN PAPERS. 309 remain under the conviction that the injuries I have done you Knew no other existence than in your own fever'd and distempered brain, and that either wanting sufficient common sence to discriminate be- tween a fiction a.nd a reality, or possessing one of those Mean dis- positions which Suspecting every thing that is and thousand of things that are not gives importance and magnitude to every friv- olous and unmeaning act or expression and converts them into an injury or nn insult. You have fixed your jealous Suspicions on Some in.advertant Expression Some unmeaning act of Mine which you have revolved in your disordered brain untill it has swelled t-0 the immense magnitude of a deadly injury a vital stab in your repu- tation, your prospects or whatever rediculous bubble your imagina- tion may have been blowing up. Your letter is too pitifully pre- varicating to merit an answer in detail, I will however give it one in part. You say it is a pity I had not reflected on those duties .it an earlier period, this observation merits no answer, and certainly can have no application to me untill I nm Shewn that I have neglected or violated them and I defy you before the eternal God to State an instance where I have violated them with you, you say I was " either afraid to insinuate my meaning, or ashamed to own mv vanity " let me caution you Sir to beware of cherishing the idea th;t fear ever has, or ever will deter me from utering my sentiments freely and openly to you and to the world-and it may be discovered that I have spirit enough to resent conte.mptable and unwarranted insinuations, and to chastise impertinance as it Merits-As to what you say about vanity I see no application it can have to the subject at all and Suppose you must have put it in to fill up the sentence or because your imagination not being as fruitful as usual--<:ould furnish you with nothing else You say that you are not governed by Suspidons that you are governed by facts I have demanded of you Sir what are those_ facts and received an evaseive, equivocating answer which a Gentleman would feel himself disg1·aced in giveing, but you repeat that you are governed by facts, and I again reiterate the demand ·what are those facts? You Say that "I might have discovered your coolness Some Months ago if I had possess 4 common understanding["] I am now Sencible that I did pet·coive a cool- ness in your address to me when I was at Herculanium and felt n little piqued at it but being equally conscious at that time ns I now nm, that I had intentionally done nothing to offend you I took no further notice of it and soon totally forgot it- Under date of May 14th you Say that "you cannot enter into the oxplinntion you re- quire without mentioning the names of those you respect etc.["] I know not who you allude to, but as you have left me entirely to con- jecture I have been induced by n great variety of circumstances to
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