EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS WRITTEN BY MRS.

RAMSAY, TO HER SON AT PRINCETON COLLEGE.*

FROM MARTHA LAURENS RAMSAY, TO DAVID RAMSAY, JUN. AT PRINCETON COLLEGE.

Charleston, May 7, 1810.

THE first thing I did when you left me, dear David, was to retire for a few moments to your chamber, and relieve my labouring heart, by commending you solemnly and affectionately to the good providence of our heavenly Father. I composed myself as soon as possible, and set about my accustomed domestic duties. Soon after, Dr. Abeel came in; he passed a parting half hour with us, and began his journey the same evening. I should be glad that my wishes and my hopes about the perfect recovery of this excellent and interesting man, held at all equal pace: but, I confess, that I wish more than I dare hope.

While I was in your chamber, I discovered the little treatise (Dr. Waterhouse's lecture to the students of the university at Cambridge on smoking tobacco) which your father had request

* Many of the same kind, written by her on a preceding similar occasion, were unfortunately destroyed in 1782, when the College was burnt.

ed you to read, and which, in the main, I approve of so highly, that I have given away half a dozen to persons in whom I am much less interested than in you. I sent it after you by Coony, who says you received it safely. I hope its contents will not be lost upon you, nor the book itself lost by you. While we were in church, on Friday afternoon, there came up a severe thunderstorm; and while Mr. Palmer was in the act of praying for you and your fellow passengers, the flashes of lightning and peals of thunder added not a little to the solemn feeling of many persons in the church, interested most tenderly in the fate of the mixed multitude on board the Pennsylvania.

I shall be counting the days till I hear from you. It will be no disappointment to me, or rather, it will give me no pain to learn that you have not entered the Junior class: to whatever class you belong, do your duty in it. Be respectful to your superiors, live affectionately with your equals; make yourself a party in no broils, but mind your own business; give dig nity to the Carolina name; write to me accurately on every subject which concerns you. Be not ashamed of religion; read your Bible dili gently, it will not only make you wise unto salvation, but you will find in it excellent directions for your conduct in the affairs of this life, Your grandfather, Laurens, used to say, if men

made a good use of only the book of Proverbs, there would be no bankruptcies, no failures in trade, no family dissentions, none of those wide spreading evils which, from the careless conduct of men in the common concerns of life, desolate human society; and, I can assure you, the more you read this divine book, the more you will love and value it. I long to hear from you, and with tender affection subscribe myself your friend and mother,

M. L. RAMSAY.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

May 14, 1810.

I Now write to you, dear David, to thank you for your letter from on board ship, which I received the day before yesterday, and which was highly acceptable both to your father and myself.

If your father and I were not very loving and very industrious people, we should feel very solitary at present. John, David, and James at a distance; the rest out of hearing; and all the young ones away. These cirumstances make a great change in our household, and one which needs both love and labour to make it tolerable

There is now no polite attention at the long table to wait till a servant is disengaged. Even slow-paced Jack is more than we want at our lessened board. I now long very much to hear from you; it seems to me a great while since we parted; and if you knew the delight your ship-letter has given your parents, as a mark of attention, affection, and home love, I am sure it would make your heart happy. My anxiety that you should behave well, and make the very best use of your collegiate opportunities is very great. But I thank God, I feel much of the cheerfulness of hope. I know you have good abilities, quick apprehension; I trust you will not be indolent, and that a manly shame (to be ashamed to do wrong is a manly feeling) will prevent your adding yourself to the list of the Carolinian triflers, whose conduct has brought a college, such as Princeton, into disrepute. I hope you will feel a laudable pride in inheriting your father's literary reputation in the college where he received an education, of which he has made so excellent an use, yet an education much below what you may receive at the same institution, from the great improvements made in every branch of science since his time. I hope absence wont weaken your affection. Continue to love us; the more you love your father and mother, the more you endeavour to oblige them, the wiser, the better, the happier you will be;

and at some future period, when standing in the relation of a parent yourself, you will have sensations unknown to all but parents; the consciousness of having been a good son, will fill you with inexpressible delight. God bless you, my dear son; your father joins in love to you, with your faithful friend and mother,

M. L. RAMSAY.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

June 13, 1810.

AN open candid disposition endears a young person much to his friends, and must make him very comfortable to himself. That sort of reserve, which arises from a consciousness of having wasted the time which ought to have been devoted to study; and being, consequently, unprepared for answering any questions proposed; or from a sullen unyielding temper, which shrinks from investigation, except when proceeding from tutors and masters it cannot be be avoided, is a reserve so unlovely, that I witness it with pain; and I do most earnestly beseech you to strive against such a temper, which if unresisted and unsubdued, will shew itself on a thousand occasions besides that specified