posed, and therefore requested temptation might not be administered to him.

Mr. T. S. Grimke assured me, that with four hundred dollars one might live well at New Haven, and purchase many books; but why multiply examples? The real expense of boarding and tuition in colleges is a matter well known from printed statements: it is easy, therefore, to calculate what beyond it is necessary for the clothing, pocket money, and conveniences of a young man, who does not go to college to be a fashionist, to sport various changes of apparel, to drink, to smoke, to game, but to lay in a sufficient stock of knowledge, and to attain such literary honours, as may be the foundation of future usefulness, a fortune to him. With regard to your spending a couple of succeeding years in Charleston, I will oppose all my influ ence to so mad a scheme. You should rather spend them in the Indian country, and learn the rugged virtues of savages, than in the desultory, dissipated habits of Charleston. I flatter myself, your last letter was written under the transient impression of some juvenile folly, which is already dissipated, and that your next letter will be more judicious, better reasoned, and in every respect more worthy yourself. I feel deeply anxious about you: your long silence, the silence of Dr. Smith, after having been my correspondent for so many years, all perplex me. I

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east you, and all my cares, on God; praying him to give you wisdom, and to grant me support in every event. Pause, and consider what you are about; a few wrong steps are easier trodden back than many. May God take care of you. Your affectionate mother.

M. L. RAMSAY.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

March 11, 1811.

DEAR CHILD,

YOUR last letter was written in a strain of affection and good resolution, which gave me great pleasure; and I hoped would have been followed up by more such. I have been confined for upwards of a month, by indisposition, and have only left my house within ten days to attend. uncle's. sick room.

your

It has been almost impossible to collect money, and with great difficulty your father has procured such a fifty-dollar bill as will pass in the northern states, which I now send. For the present, I avoid all remark, advice, or other matter, for it is so near closing of the post that I fear losing the opportunity. May God bless you, my dear son, and make you a son of comfort and honour

to your dear father, and your most affectionate mother and friend,

MARTHA LAURENS RAMSAY.

If any should object to the propriety of publishing these private confidential domestic letters, the editor apologizes, by observing, that the importance of their contents, as cautions to youth, remote from their parents, at seminaries of learning; and also to parents, as models for corresponding with their absent sons, and discountenancing their juvenile follies; outweighs, in his opinion, all minor considerations.

In justice to the youth, to whom these letters were addressed, it is declared, that he has never incurred any college censure, nor has he ever been charged with any immoraral conduct; that his standing in his class was always, and now is reputable, and his prospect fair for obtaining the degree of A.B. before his eighteenth year is completed; and that the friendly monitions of his mother were not so much reproofs for what had taken place, as provisional guards against what might take place in future; and that there is good reason to believe that these letters, in concurrence with other moral causes, have had the desired effect of confirming him in the steady pursuit of knowledge and virtue.

The letters were, at the request of the editor, to whom their contents were unknown, promptly sent to him from Princeton, in July, 1811, though the intention of publishing them was communicated in the same letter which asked for their transmission. EDITOR.

Mrs. Ramsay's sister, Mary Eleanor Pinckney, departed this life in 1794, and in the 25th year of her age, leaving two daughters and a son. These naturally excited the tenderest feelings of their affectionate aunt. As they grew up, an interchange of kind offices almost daily passed between them. To accommodate to her young friends, their aunt laid aside the superiority which age and relationship gave her, and, placing her nieces on the footing of daughters, mingled souls with them, as equal friends, and exchanged notes with them, which were frequently written with a pencil, and most of them without dates. From these the following are selected, as a specimen of the playfulness of her imagination, and an evidence of the overflowings of her love, wishing to impart cheerfulness and communicate happiness to all around her.

TO FRANCES HENRIETTA PINCKNEY.

You shall not be jealous, dear Fan, about not receiving a letter from me, after such a sweet, feeling note, as you have written me. Cherish, my darling niece, those warm sensibilities for your fellow creatures, and notwithstanding the various ills that "flesh is heir to," they will yield you more pleasure in going through life, than ever they will produce you unmingled pain. I am really proud of your note, and think how happy I am in daughters both at home and a little way off. I feel less grieved that you do not flatter me with the hopes of a visit this evening, as Eleanor and Patty are going to Mrs. Jones's;

and will, I dare say, make you a fly, or perhaps, a long teazing musquito of a visit. Well, I do love Sunday on many accounts; and, as William, in the anticipation of his pocket money, often says to me, when will Saturday come? so I, besides rejoicing in the religious blessings of the Sunday, often say, when will Sunday come? that I may be sure of my meeting streeters. Good bye,

dear Fan, tell Mary to turn that naughty cold out of doors, or I wont send her any flowers for her bow pot, for I shall be afraid, that smelling those sweet roses too much has hurt her delicate nerves, and made her feel as if she had a cold. From your affectionate,

M. L. RAMSAY.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

I REGRET, dear Fan, that you should think it late, when you left us, if it implies that you found the evening tedious. I was in hopes you had been amused in your corner as we were in ours, and I believe on our side the chimney, we felt sorry for the signal of" more house." I have just dismissed my scholars, and feel a little like a tired old schoolmaster, so you must excuse this short note. I hear Patty capering about in the heigh-day of youth and freedom from care, so