774
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
country is yet new and wild, we have no luxuries, few comforts, tho abundance of the common necessaries of life- I have however dis- patched my brother to :Missouri to move on my mother and Sister and Aunt, (the sister of my mother) all widows; and should your situation not be agreeable and [should you] think that a removal here would better it, the same accomodations shall be made for your family that are for mine. If Mr H - did not dispose of the interest he held with me here I think it will be a handsome fortune for his :family at no very dis- tant period and I assure you that my desire is that they and they alone should reap the benefit of it. I shall not willingly consent to see any advantages resulting from my labors appropriated to the discharge of his old debts when it could be much better applied in supporting his widow and children-I therefore request that you would write to me with frankness as to a sincere friend and inform me of your situation and :future wishes, and how I can serve you. I expect that my mother and sister and several other families will leave Herculanium in Missouri for this Country some time in Octo- ber next-might we not :form a little circle a kind of isolated world of our·own amidst these wilds and hope that happiness would be- come our presiding goddess 1 I have tJ10ught it practicable-per- haps it was a romantic dream-perhaps the symplicity of a rural life would be dull monotony, its peaceful quiet scenes be lost in vain regrets for past enjoyments in the gay and bustling world, and the proud independence of a farmer be viewed as degrading servitude. The mind of man is of too unstable a texture to found even a theory of happiness upon. When oppressed with cares, harrassed by un~ feeling creditors, agonized by the ingratitude of :friends and driven to madness by the prospect of a starving family, a desert would be a paradise to him if it only afforded sustenance; but when the effer- vescence of the mind had subsided this desert would be as loathsome as a dungeon-perhaps however if he found a small circle of honor- able minded men who had like himself passed through the school of adversity and learned fortitude to meet the privations of their situ- ation, philosophy to find contentment in a plain and comfortable competa.ncy without the glitter of wealth, and charity to do unto their neighbors as they would be done by-and if :female society like a celestial halo could also shed its mild effulgence around them-per- haps, in such an event he might find happiness-and perhaps the evil passions of the human heart would soon prove the fallacy of all such dreams-For my own part I feel disposed to try the ex- periment and shall endeavor to collect my scattered family to one pointr-The Earth from which we sprung will yield us food and raiment, and the privations of our situation I think can be better
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