Your Favor of the 3d Inst. came to Hand this morning. (1) The Satisfaction my Letter afforded you flatters as well as pleases me. It argues a Remembrance of former Times; for which & other Reasons I shall give you no more opportunities of joining the assembly of Angels in rejoicing over penitent Mortals. Not that I mean, on the one Hand, to enter the State of Reprobation & become a hardned Sinner, or on the other enlist with those Saints who slip not with their Feet. This Letter, written on the very Day I recd. Yours, will be some Evidence of my having gone thro the whole Process of Amendment. Divines you know describe it as consisting of Conviction, Contrition, and Conversion. Whether I shall persevere or not, is a Subject on which Time will utter the surest Prophecies.
The Complections of Resignation, soft Complaint, and joyless Sensibility, are so blended in your Letter, that (if anonymous) one would suppose it written by a wayworn Traveller thro' this Vale of Tears, who journeying towards his distant Heaven, thro sultry Heats and dreary Paths, at Length lays his languid Limbs under some friendly Shade, and permits the Effusions of his Soul to escape in words. My Friend a mind unbraced and Nerves relaxed are not fit Company for each other. It was not a Man whom the Poet tells us "pined in Thought and sat like Patience on a monument smiling at Grief." In such rugged Times as these other Sensations are to be cherished. Rural Scenes, domestic Bliss, and the charming Group of Pleasures found in the Train of Peace, fly at the approach of War, and are seldom to be found in Fields stained with Blood, or Habitations polluted by outrage and Desolation. I admire your Sensibility, nor would I wish to see less Milk in your Veins-you would be less amiable. In my Opinion however your Reasoning is not quite just. I think a Mans Happiness requires that he should Condescend to keep himself free from Fleas and Wasps, as well as Thiefs and Robbers.
When the present Session of your Legislature is ended, take a Ride and see us. You will find many here happy to see you. Morris has not forgotten you, and I will answer for his Memory on that Subject. He is busy and useful, more busy indeed than most others-for besides the Affairs of Congress, he is daily employed in making Oblations to Venus and Sacrifices to
Aculapius. Remember this is to be translated in the best Sense, and not so construed as to mean Vice or P-x.
The Report arising from Hakes Importations has no Currency here. (2) If it should, I shall put your Mark of Counterfiet upon it. I have heard Nothing of that Business since I left you, except Capt. Banckers telling me that some of the goods had been discovered and seized. If Hake deserved half the Censure bestowed upon him by those, who ought to have known him, he had a Right only to that Species of Politeness which Gentlemen practice to keep men of that Character at a Distance.
I have something, tho not very interesting, to say to you on the Subject of Politics, but as it is now very late, and I have been writing Letters ever since Dinner, I am really too much fatigued to proceed. Make my Compliments to Mrs. Livingston, who I presume is with You.