Metadata
Title
David E. Hale to Sarah Josepha Hale
Date
1829-11-19
November 19, 1829
Subject
Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879
Medium
Manuscripts
Language
eng
Type
text
Collection
Sarah Josepha Hale Collection, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Identifier
46-M-178
Rights
http://www.philaathenaeum.org/rights.html
Text
West Point Nov 19. 1829
My dear Mother
You wish me to write to you often.
I shall endeavour for the future to comply with your
request yet whenever I attempt to write I generally
produce such puerile letters that I am ashamed to send
them. I have actually been trying almost every day
for this last month to write to you and have several
times abandoned the attempt in despair.
You say I must attend to the study of the dead
languages, they have been dead to me for the last four months
for I have not read a dozen lines in the Latin or Greek.
Indeed I have but barely time sufficient to get Mathematical
and French lessons. We are in the recitation rooms
above four hours and Military duty [etc.] take up a great part
of the time, thus we [?] have eight hours to study and
read. There are but very few who get their lessons perfectly,
that is, who can[DE: not] answer questions which [have?]
any bearing on the lesson; and to do this they are obliged
to consult other books on the subject in short they must
know as much about it as their professors. Although I
thought before I came here that I had studied hard yet
I find the difficulty in the study of the languages is nothing
in comparison with that of Mathematicks. In the former
memory and very ordinary talents are required; in the later
[DE: a] invention, a mind suited to the study, and above all industry.
You wish me to write about my friends, their characters,
[etc.] I rank Frank Vinton as the first not only because
I became acquainted with him first, but also because
he is the finest young man in the Academy. He stands
fourth in the first class and is regarded as [being] [DE: ?] better
acquainted with literature than any one in his class.
He is my friend not so much for my sake alone as for
yours, that is he likes me as the son of Mrs Hale Editress [etc.]
therefore you are bound to think as highly of him as I do.
He is the orator in the Dialectic Society. This Society is a sort
of club among the Cadets intended to perfect the [them] in declamation
writing [DE: ?] [etc.]
your promise of sending some books is most
agreeable to me. There is nothing I like so well as reading an
entertaining book after laborious study. It gives me new relish
for my studies. We shall begin Geometry next week. I never
studied it you know, and therfore [therefore] cannot tell whether I shall
succeed as well in it as I have done in Algebra. As you say
you wish me to get a respectable standing in my class perhaps
you will be glad to learn that I am in the first section in both
French and Mathematicks. This last study study suits me better
than the Latin though I shall devote my [DE: spare] spare
time to it. I am glad to hear that my sisters are well and happy
and that Horatio is contented. Give my love to William and tell
him if he wishes to see a camp and real soldiers he must come
here next summer with you.
Your Son
D.E. Hale
My dear Mother
You wish me to write to you often.
I shall endeavour for the future to comply with your
request yet whenever I attempt to write I generally
produce such puerile letters that I am ashamed to send
them. I have actually been trying almost every day
for this last month to write to you and have several
times abandoned the attempt in despair.
You say I must attend to the study of the dead
languages, they have been dead to me for the last four months
for I have not read a dozen lines in the Latin or Greek.
Indeed I have but barely time sufficient to get Mathematical
and French lessons. We are in the recitation rooms
above four hours and Military duty [etc.] take up a great part
of the time, thus we [?] have eight hours to study and
read. There are but very few who get their lessons perfectly,
that is, who can[DE: not] answer questions which [have?]
any bearing on the lesson; and to do this they are obliged
to consult other books on the subject in short they must
know as much about it as their professors. Although I
thought before I came here that I had studied hard yet
I find the difficulty in the study of the languages is nothing
in comparison with that of Mathematicks. In the former
memory and very ordinary talents are required; in the later
[DE: a] invention, a mind suited to the study, and above all industry.
You wish me to write about my friends, their characters,
[etc.] I rank Frank Vinton as the first not only because
I became acquainted with him first, but also because
he is the finest young man in the Academy. He stands
fourth in the first class and is regarded as [being] [DE: ?] better
acquainted with literature than any one in his class.
He is my friend not so much for my sake alone as for
yours, that is he likes me as the son of Mrs Hale Editress [etc.]
therefore you are bound to think as highly of him as I do.
He is the orator in the Dialectic Society. This Society is a sort
of club among the Cadets intended to perfect the [them] in declamation
writing [DE: ?] [etc.]
your promise of sending some books is most
agreeable to me. There is nothing I like so well as reading an
entertaining book after laborious study. It gives me new relish
for my studies. We shall begin Geometry next week. I never
studied it you know, and therfore [therefore] cannot tell whether I shall
succeed as well in it as I have done in Algebra. As you say
you wish me to get a respectable standing in my class perhaps
you will be glad to learn that I am in the first section in both
French and Mathematicks. This last study study suits me better
than the Latin though I shall devote my [DE: spare] spare
time to it. I am glad to hear that my sisters are well and happy
and that Horatio is contented. Give my love to William and tell
him if he wishes to see a camp and real soldiers he must come
here next summer with you.
Your Son
D.E. Hale