Metadata
Title
Sarah Josepha Hale to David E. Hale
Creator
Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879
Date
1830-08-18
August 18, 1830
Medium
Manuscripts
Language
eng
Type
text
Collection
Sarah Josepha Hale Collection, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Identifier
46-M-133
Rights
http://www.philaathenaeum.org/rights.html
Text
Boston, Aug 18, 1830
My dear Son - Enclosed is one dollar. I
would have sent more had I it on hand.
I was sorry after you left that I did
not give you more - and I was more
sorry that you went off so unceremoniously.
Remember always, and "act your
part" in the present moment. You are
too visionary, - and you waste your time,
and fritter away your present happiness
repining that the past was not all
sunshine, forgetting that every one
without exception with whom you
mingle have some causes of dissatisfaction.
I do not believe there many
in your Institution, but consider your
situation, and prospects enviable.
I am not giving you a lecture -
only hints that I hope you will
improve, and that I shall have
the satisfaction of seeing you have
applied them when we meet again.
[?]
Mr Lothrop will take charge of all
the articles you left here, and he
will probably visit you in the
course of two or three weeks. Should
he be prevented from taking his intended
tour to Albany he will send the
package by the steam boat.
I shall go to Keene in about two weeks
so you must not expect to hear
from me again til after
my return. Willey is well and
happy - he enjoys the present and does
not [rail?] at the past. Let me tell you
one rule for your communications
to stranger, and indeed all excepting
your own family. Never cast any suspicions
on your own standing in
society by complaining of the disagreeables
of your lot while in N.H.
[?] is your birth place, and you will
gain no credit by deprecating it,
or the people thereof. Let the trials of
life make us better - of what avail is it
to find fault? We cannot mend the
world - but we may correct our own
faults. You are young in years, but in
experience of the world, or its crosses and
cares you have had lessons which do
not always occur. Yet wisdom may
be gathered from them, and happiness
too, as easily as discontent.
Of those who are left, without property,
or [nil?] friends, at your age, how very
few are so fortunate, or placed in such
an eligible situation as I have obtained for
you. I think it ungrateful that you
should look on the advantages I could not
obtain for you with such eager anxiety,
and apparently forget the many privileges
you have enjoyed.
But enough of this - the time
will come when you will find that
all [ED: page torn] not happiness which appears so
and that the worth of friends and relatives
does not all consist in riches -
or in living fashionably. The world is
generally what we make it by our own temper
and exertions; either a place of rational and
innocent enjoyment - or one of discontent,
of dislike, and often wretchedness.
If you wish to be happy and beloved, be calm
and kind when with your friends - and never treat
a relative with less attention or deference than you
would a stranger. Your Mother
My dear Son - Enclosed is one dollar. I
would have sent more had I it on hand.
I was sorry after you left that I did
not give you more - and I was more
sorry that you went off so unceremoniously.
Remember always, and "act your
part" in the present moment. You are
too visionary, - and you waste your time,
and fritter away your present happiness
repining that the past was not all
sunshine, forgetting that every one
without exception with whom you
mingle have some causes of dissatisfaction.
I do not believe there many
in your Institution, but consider your
situation, and prospects enviable.
I am not giving you a lecture -
only hints that I hope you will
improve, and that I shall have
the satisfaction of seeing you have
applied them when we meet again.
[?]
Mr Lothrop will take charge of all
the articles you left here, and he
will probably visit you in the
course of two or three weeks. Should
he be prevented from taking his intended
tour to Albany he will send the
package by the steam boat.
I shall go to Keene in about two weeks
so you must not expect to hear
from me again til after
my return. Willey is well and
happy - he enjoys the present and does
not [rail?] at the past. Let me tell you
one rule for your communications
to stranger, and indeed all excepting
your own family. Never cast any suspicions
on your own standing in
society by complaining of the disagreeables
of your lot while in N.H.
[?] is your birth place, and you will
gain no credit by deprecating it,
or the people thereof. Let the trials of
life make us better - of what avail is it
to find fault? We cannot mend the
world - but we may correct our own
faults. You are young in years, but in
experience of the world, or its crosses and
cares you have had lessons which do
not always occur. Yet wisdom may
be gathered from them, and happiness
too, as easily as discontent.
Of those who are left, without property,
or [nil?] friends, at your age, how very
few are so fortunate, or placed in such
an eligible situation as I have obtained for
you. I think it ungrateful that you
should look on the advantages I could not
obtain for you with such eager anxiety,
and apparently forget the many privileges
you have enjoyed.
But enough of this - the time
will come when you will find that
all [ED: page torn] not happiness which appears so
and that the worth of friends and relatives
does not all consist in riches -
or in living fashionably. The world is
generally what we make it by our own temper
and exertions; either a place of rational and
innocent enjoyment - or one of discontent,
of dislike, and often wretchedness.
If you wish to be happy and beloved, be calm
and kind when with your friends - and never treat
a relative with less attention or deference than you
would a stranger. Your Mother