| (seq. 58) Brookline Sep 30th 1800
My dear friend,
Your letters have always afforded me pe-
culiar pleasure But your No 21, from the consolation it breathed
and the sympathy it expressed was more than ever accepta-
ble It did "good, like a medicine" It did not probe the wound
which the friendly hand of time was beginning to heal; and thus
cause it to bleed afresh Like a mollifying plaister it allayed
irritation and produced a sweet temporary relief Why is it that
friends do not oftener come forward in seasons of distress to be
stone consolation? "A brother is born for adversity" They tell us we
are sensible your loss is great; we heartily sympathize with
you; but on a subject so trite we can say nothing new ? Mis-
aken friends! They have not learned the first lesson in the school
of affliction Ah! little do they think, that while the bosom is
swelling with anguish it is no time to address the head with
novel and dry speculations Little do they imagine that the
most effectual sympathy we can afford is when "out if the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" I do not say
this to complain of my freinds Heaven be praised! I have | (seq. 58) Brookline Sep 30th 1800
My dear friend,
Your letters have always afforded me pe-
culiar pleasure But your No 21, from the consolation it breathed
and the sympathy it expressed was more than ever accepta-
ble It did "good, like a medicine" It did not probe the wound
which the friendly hand of time was beginning to heal; and thus
cause it to bleed afresh Like a mollifying plaister it allayed
irritation and produced a sweet temporary relief Why is it that
friends do not oftener come forward in seasons of distress to be |
EN