Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2Jefferson, Thomas
History
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
Head. Thou art the most incorrigible of all the beings that ever sinned!
I reminded you of the follies of the first day, intending to deduce from
thence some useful lessons for you, but instead of listening to them,
you kindle at the recollection, you retrace the whole series with a
fondness, which shows you want nothing but the opportunity, to act
it over again. I often told you, during its course, that you were
imprudently engaging your affections, under circumstances that must cost
you a great deal of pain; that the persons, indeed, were of the greatest
merit, possessing good sense, good humor, honest hearts, honest manners,
and eminence in a lovely art; that the lady had, moreover, qualities and
accomplishments belonging to her sex, which might form a chapter
apart for her; such as music, modesty, beauty, and that softness of
disposition, which is the ornament of her sex, and charm of ours: but
that all these considerations would increase the pang of separation,
that their stay here was to be short; that you rack our whole system
when you are parted from those you love, complaining that such a
separation is worse than death, inasmuch as this ends our sufferings,
whereas that only begins them; and that the separation would, in this
instance, be the more severe, as you, would probably never see them
again.
Heart. But they told me, they would come back again the next year.
Head. But in the mean time, see what you surfer: and their return, too,
depends on so many circumstances, that, if you had a grain of prudence,
you would not count upon it. Upon the whole, it is improbable, and
therefore you should abandon the idea of ever seeing them again.
Heart. May Heaven abandon me, if I do!
Head. Very well. Suppose, then, they come back. They are to stay two
months, and when these are expired, what is to follow? Perhaps you
flatter yourself they may come to America?
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