above. Even an incorrect answer, if given in an amiable tone of voice, indicating a desire to be set right, if found in error, is preferable to silence, or to an unwilling reply, even if a correct one. God has given you an excellent understanding. Oh, make use of it for wise purposes, acknowledge it as his gift, and let it regulate your conduct and harmonize your passions. Be industrious, be amiable. Every act of self-denial will bring its own reward with it, and make the next step in duty and in virtue easier and more pleasant than the former.

I am glad you like your room-mate. I hope he is one who will set you no bad example, and with whom you may enjoy yourself pleasantly and innocently. I delight to hear every thing about you, and you can have neither pleasure nor pain in which I do not sincerely and affec tionately participate.

Eleanor and I drank tea with aunt Laurens last evening. Frederick, fourteen days younger than William, was learning Fructus and Cornu, with such earnestness, in order to be ready for Mr. Moore against the next day, that I could hardly believe it was my wild nephew. John was in a corner smiling, and helping Frederick whenever he seemed to be at a loss.

Mild

The girls all send their love to you; so do Parnoble your good friend and sister desires not to be forgotten. Mrs. Coram is constant in her

inquiries after you; so are many other friends. It is a charming thing to be beloved. God bless you, my very dear child; may he watch over your youth, and keep you from shame. I em

brace you

with an overflowing tide of affection. MARTHA LAURENS RAMSAY.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

July 18, 1810.

FROM the tenor of your last letter, it may be fairly inferred, that you are dissatisfied with the strictness of a collegiate course; and if you should not go through a collegiate course, what then? Can you go through any vituous course without economy, industry, and self-denial?— Can you fit yourself for usefulness on earth, or happiness in heaven, in any other way than doing your duty in the station in which God has placed you! And if your chief ambition is, without caring whether you are as wise or good, to wish, at least, to be richer than your father and mother, will not a diligent attention to collegiate studies and duties be the readiest method to fit you for such eminence in whatever profession you choose, as shall enable you to attain this golden treasure? I assure you, many young men, with

less means than you have, or are likely to have, for nothing really necessary or comfortable, I trust in Providence, shall be wanting to you, have felt it a great privilege to go through a collegiate course, and have afterward, come to be eminent, respectable, and wealthy.

I would never wish my judgment to be warped by my feelings, especially by offended feelings, to do any thing harsh. I would rather even have it, blinded by such affection for my dear children, as would make my tenderness overstep perhaps the exact bound of maternal prudence: both extremes would be best avoided. "Give me thine heart, my son," is the language of scripture; and where there is any heart worth giving or worth having, I believe it is seldom refused to the authors of our being, the protectors of our infancy; to the father, whose fond ambition it is to see his son distinguished in life-the mother, who with a throbbing heart and moistened eye, is continually addressing the throne of heaven for the welfare of her dear child-and to the sisters, ever ready to reciprocate the tender charities of domestic endearment, and ever cheerfully sacrificing something of their own convenience for the advancement of their brothers. I pray God to bless you, and to give you grace to make a good use of an understanding, which I am sure you possess, to give a right bias to energies and sensibilities which, wrongly

directed, will make you foolish and miserable. With sincere prayers for your improvement in wisdom and virtue, wishing you an affectionate heart and industrious habits, I remain your faithful friend, your tender mother,

M. L. RAMSAY.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

August 26, 1810.

DEAR DAVID,

I AM at present undergoing a very severe affliction, and have for a fortnight past been so much occupied and aggitated, that I have let one post after another pass without writing to you. You know, however, all my mind toward you; have my precepts and opinion upon every subject which can materially interest you; and whether I write or am silent, my maternal love, my tender anxiety for my son, for my dear husband's name-sake, can never be for one moment a matter of doubt to you. Your sister, Miss Futerell, expects to embark for Liverpool, on her way to London, the day after to-morrow. Business of importance, and the desire of being with her mother, become aged and infirm, is the cause of her voyage. She has been attempting a return to

England for many months; but the obstructions to an intercourse between that country and ours, made it impossible to get a passage, but by some very round-about way. Your father is more affected on this occasion than it is common for men to manifest. With regard to myself and your sisters, need I describe our situation? Miss Futerell is bowed down with grief at our separation; and I think this is a grief in which you will, to a certain degree, participate; she loves you with a very warm affection, and entertains such an opinion of your heart and understanding, that she is often saying, I expect great things from David; she will hardly ever allow me even to express a fear of your doing ill; and declares, however such fears may intrude upon the heart of a mother, and especially of a Carolinian mother, I have no cause for it. Yesterday, she said to me, "I am going to leave you, and it is mournful to me to leave you burdened with care on so many accounts; but keep up your spirits; repose your hope in God; particularly, dont be uneasy about David, he will do well; exhort him to be industrious, not to be contented with low attainments, and all will be well; much good seed has been sown by you, and I think it has fallen on good ground; he knows the truth, he has imbibed sound principles, from time to time in his life he has thought very seriously, he will do you no discredit, and he will become