quiesced in such a separation under any other care than that of the most excellent parent and guardian who accompanied you. You have arrived at years capable of improving under the advantages you will be likely to have, if you do but properly attend to them. They are talents put into your hands, of which an account will be required of you hereafter; and, being possessed of one, two, or four, see to it that you double your number.

is

"The most amiable and most useful disposition in a young mind is diffidence of itself; and this should lead you to seek advice and instruction from him who your natural guardian, and will always counsel and direct you in the best manner, both for your present and future happiness. You are in possession of a natural good understanding, and of spirits unbroken by adversity and untamed with care. Improve your understanding by acquiring useful knowledge and virtue, such as will render you an ornament to society, an honor to your country, and a blessing to your parents. Great learning and superior abilities, should you ever possess them, will be of little value and small estimation, unless virtue, honor, truth, and integrity are added to them. Adhere to those religious sentiments and principles which were early instilled into your mind, and remember that you are accountable to your Maker for all your words and actions. Let me enjoin it upon you to attend constantly and steadfastly to the precepts and instructions of your father, as you value the happiness of your mother and your own welfare. His care and attention to you ren

der many things unnecessary for me to write, which I might otherwise do; but the inadvertency and heedlessness of youth require line upon line and precept upon precept, and, when enforced by the joint efforts of both parents, will, I hope, have a due influence upon your conduct; for, dear as you are to me, I would much rather you should have found your grave in the ocean you have crossed, or that any untimely death crop you in your infant years, than see you an immoral, profligate, or graceless child.

"You have entered early in life upon the great theatre of the world, which is full of temptations and vice of every kind. You are not wholly unacquainted with history, in which you have read of crimes which your inexperienced mind could scarcely believe credible. You have been taught to think of them with horror, and to view vice as

'A monster of so frightful mien,

That, to be hated, needs but to be seen.'

Yet you must keep a strict guard upon yourself, or the odious monster will lose its terror by becoming familiar to you. The modern history of our own times furnishes as black a list of crimes as can be paralleled in ancient times, even if we go back to Nero, Caligula, Caesar Borgia. Young as you are, the cruel war into which we have been compelled by the haughty tyrant of Britain and the bloody emissaries of his vengeance, may stamp upon your mind this certain truth, that the welfare and prosperity of all countries, communities, and, I may add, individuals, de

pend upon their morals. That nation to which we were once united, as it has departed from justice, eluded and subverted the wise laws which formerly governed it, and suffered the worst of crimes to go unpunished, has lost its valor, wisdom, and humanity, and, from being the dread and terror of Europe, has sunk into derision and infamy.

"But, to quit political subjects, I have been greatly anxious for your safety, having never heard of the frigate since she sailed, till, about a week ago, a New York paper informed that she was taken and carried into Plymouth. I did not fully credit this report, though it gave me much uneasiness. I yesterday heard that a French vessel was arrived at Portsmouth, which brought news of the safe arrival of the Boston; but this wants confirmation. I hope it will not be long before I shall be assured of your safety. You must write me an account of your voyage, of your situation, and of every thing entertaining you can recollect.

"Be assured, I am most affectionately

"Your mother,

ABIGAIL ADAMS."

But it was destined to have no reply, and for a year and a half she heard nothing of her boy. He had gone with Mr. Francis Dana to Russia as his private secretary, and the years that rolled away ere she again met him, were accounted the saddest of her checkered life.

One other son she felt was safe with his father; but there came a person with tidings which filled her soul with apprehensions. At Corunna a young boy

was pointed out to him as the son of Mr. Adams, and this was all. Cruel suspense kept her wretched for weary days, for if there, he was on his way home; and the fearful imageries she was ever conjuring up in her brain, unfitted her for that patient waiting she was forced to endure. The thoughts of her little child alone, or under the care of some indifferent stranger, on board a miserable ship in mid-ocean, was harrowing, and not until he was safe at last with her could she be composed. Three years passed quietly in the modest home at Braintree, and sadly to the American Minister, who grew dispirited at the wearying pro cesses of forming treaties and alliances, but no bright ray intervened to cheer the long-divided friends. She says: "I feel unable to sustain even the idea that it will be half that period ere we meet again. Could we live to the age of the antediluvians, we might bet ter support this separation; but when threescore years and ten circumscribe the life of man, how painful is the idea that of that short space only a few years of social happiness are our allotted portion." The uncertainty of Mr. Adams' return, and the many reasons given for his probable residence abroad many years, together with the desire of Mrs. Adams' life, to be once again with her husband, induced her to make up her mind to go to him. But winter had come, and she dared not undertake alone a voyage so fraught with hardships. She looked upon her children, and her heart wavered; her father's words rang in her ears, "You must never go, child, whilst I live," and she hushed the cry of her own heart, and walked for ward patiently and hopefully.

Mr. Dana, who had gone with Mr. Adams as private secretary, and afterward been sent to Russia as Minister, returned home. She writes: "While I was in town, Mr. Dana arrived very unexpectedly, for I had not received your letters by Mr. Thaxter. My uncle discovered him as he came up State street, and instantly engaged him to dine with him, acquainting him that I was in town, and at his house. The news soon reached my ears, Mr. Dana arrived! Mr. Dana arrived!' from every person you saw; but how was I affected? The tears involuntarily flowed from my eyes. Though God is my witness, I envied not the felicity of others; yet my heart swelled with grief, and the idea that I-I only-was left alone, recalled all the tender scenes of separation, and overcame all my fortitude. I retired, and reasoned myself into composure sufficient to see him without childish emotion." The long, monotonous winter passed, and when the warm spring days came, the self-reliant wife was ready for her journey. Business all arranged; her sons with relatives; house closed, and she with her daughter ready to bid adieu to the many friends

who crowded around her.

There was nothing now to bind her to her native land. The one strong tie which held her was dis solved. No fears now of leaving her father to suffer in his old age; no anxieties lest he should mourn and repine at parting. He was laid beside the mother she so loved, and when she left the shores of her native land, he had gone home, and the grass was beginning to grow upon his new-made grave.