Page:An Epistle to Posterity.djvu/38

Rh We go out to tea often. Father's friends treat me with a great deal of attention, and the Lawrences and Mrs. Page have asked me to tea. I am to see Washington Allston's picture to-morrow. "Ever your loving

"M. E."

", Dec. ", — I hear you look very well in your new blue suit, and I think as you bought it all yourself, and not with my advice, you shall not be scolded for spending so much. We must try to make it do for two winters, but I am seriously sorry to hear you say you could not help thinking of yourself all church time! Try on that sacred day to dismiss all thoughts of yourself and your clothes. It is one reason I wish you to be well-dressed so you shall not think of yourself, for I know it is mortifying to a young person to be ill-dressed, but I trust you will rise above clothes. Thank Mrs. P. for her great kindness to you, and do not eat hot cakes for breakfast. Dr. Twitchell says that is the cause of the pain in your chest. Your little sisters both have severe sore throats. Take care and not get one, in Boston. Bathe yourself freely in cold water, even if you have to break the ice in the pitcher. "Your Mother,

"M. L. W."

", Dec., 184—. ", — I have been taken to hear Miss Margaret Fuller talk. She received me very kindly. I found her a very plain woman with almost a hump back, but the moment she began to talk I found her most fascinating; there was a sort of continuous long low stream of well-constructed sentences and that Boston pronunciation which you and I admire. She said: 'Talk about your friends' interests and not your own; always put the pronoun you for the pronoun I when you can.' (A lady near me pulled my skirt and said: 'She is a great egotist herself.') 'In Society to have unity one must have units, one cannot be unanimous alone.' She said: 'Never talk of your diseases, your domestics or your dresses.' She said: 'Think before you speak, and never speak unless you feel you cannot help speaking.'

"'But then I should never speak at all,' said S———.

"'Perhaps the world would be none the worse,' said she, rather cruelly, I thought.

"She is cruel. The girls all came away frightened. One said that