LETTERS. TO MRS. H. LINCOLN.1 Weymouth, 5 October, 1761. MY DEAR FRIEND, Does not my friend think me a stupid girl, when she has kindly offered to correspond with me, that I should be so senseless as not to accept the offer? Senseless and stupid I would confess myself, and that to the greatest degree, if I did not foresee the many advantages I shall receive from corresponding with a lady of your known prudence and understanding. I gratefully accept your offer; although I may be charged with vanity in pretending to entertain you with my scrawls; yet I know your generosity is such, 1 For this letter I have to acknowledge myself indebted to the kindness of Miss E. S. Quincy, a grand-niece of the lady to whom it was addressed. After the death of Dr. Lincoln she was married to Ebenezer Storer, Esq., of Boston, and died only a few years ago. that, like a kind parent, you will bury in oblivion all my imperfections. I do not aim at entertaining. I write merely for the instruction and edification which I shall receive, provided you honor me with your correspondence. Your letter I received, and, believe me, it has not been through forgetfulness, that I have not before this time returned you my sincere thanks for the kind assurance you then gave me of continued friendship. You have, I hope, pardoned my suspicions; they arose from love. What persons in their right senses would calmly, and without repining or even inquiring into the cause, submit to lose their greatest temporal good and happiness? for thus the divine, Dr. Young, looks upon a true friend, when he says, "A friend is worth all hazards we can run. Who, that has once been favored with your friendship, can be satisfied with the least diminution of it? Not those who value it according to its worth. You have, like king Ahasuerus, held forth, though not a golden sceptre, yet one more valuable, the sceptre of friendship, if I may so call it. Like Esther, I would draw nigh and touch it. Will you proceed and say, "What wilt thou?" and "What is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of my heart." Why, no. I think I will not have so dangerous a present, lest your good man should find it out and challenge me; but, if you |