Select Item below to DOWNLOAD - Once item is selected, right click and choose 'save as'
4ffeb437-8f68-4aa9-9534-fe44d7cd30f6
Peleg Wadsworth to Lucia Wadsworth, 24 February 1795
Manuscript letter
Phila. 24Feby1795
My dear Lucia
In my last to you, I promised to make the Mode of increasing our Enjoy-ments, the Subject of a future Letter – apropos – (I suppose You speak french my dear by this time) my meaning is that by suitable reflections on the Blessings that we are in the daily engagement of, we may heighten their relish & augment their Effects – For Instance My dear – Your fine cudley[sic] Cheeks & lovely Countenance shew that you are in the Enjoyment of perfect health – but I will ask you if whole days do not pass without your ever reflecting at all on the Blessing of Health, without which nothing on earth can have its true re-lish – I am not fond of anticipating Evil, nor do I here ^ mean to recommend it otherwise than as (p. 2) a dark shade in a picture in order to set of a principal Object to better advantage – Now my Lucia in order that you may be highly sensible of the very great Blessing You enjoy – suppose For a Moment that You health was vanished ^ gone - & your bloom vanished - & that long & painful Sickness had confined You to your Chamber For a long time - & no prospect to be discovered of a speedy recovery. Your Mates visiting You From one time to another without your having it even in your power to enjoy the agreableness[sic] of their Visits, because of pain or weakness. Should you not think what inestimable Favour they enjoy’d, when You see them leaving your Room in the bloom of health & Vigour – the same Blessing You thoughtlessly enjoy’d but a few days or weeks before – but now deprived of it – How ardently would you wish (p. 3) it might once again be restor’d to You again that You might know how to prize it – that You might enjoy it in its full extent as it pass’d – Well My Dear Lucia – without the dreadful Admonition – realized in Sickness itself, ^ by reflecting on this Blessing as I have suggested can You not be sen-sible of what You enjoy - & by that means enjoy the Blessing in a more exalted degree - & with a higher Sense of Gratitude to the Author of it?
So I could instance in many – in every other Enjoyment – You say My Dear You go to dancing School twice in a Week – I dare say You enjoy it very will & yet I very much doubt whether even in that You are fully aware of the extent of the enjoy-ment – Suppose You ^ left to be Scratch’d from the society of your youthful Companions & the plea-sureable Amusement, by any reverse of fortune (p. 4) & by removing into the far distant Wilderness was wholly depriv’d of all this scene of gay Amusement & agreable Companions – without a possibility of seeing them again for a long time, if ever – Oh! with what Keenness would You long for One more of those agreable Interviews – which You had formerly enjoyed only as a thing of Course – agreable enough, to be sure – but with out any particular Attention to the Blessing –
So we may say of Our Dress – do we know the want of it? - & is the full fed sto-mach sensible of the Gnawings of Hunger. In order that we may be sensible of the Blessings We enjoy, let us only contrast them with their Oposites[sic] & the Work is done – What do You say my Dear Lucia will such reflections lessen or Augment your Enjoyments? in my Opinion they (p. 5) will increase them – For we are very apt to be insensible of the favour we enjoy till we have learn’d their value by their Loss –
In the Beginning of the late War my Dear, I thot I was a very Great Son of Liberty as the Whigs were call’d – And I really was so, according to the general Accep-tation of the Term – but I confess that I never knew the meaning of the Word ^ Liberty till such time as I was wholly depriv’d of it – by being confin’d in a Prison with-out any probability of Redemption – then & not till then I found ^ was sensible of the Value of Liberty - & it made so deep an impression on your my mind, that I believe in my heart I am the better & the happier for it eversince ^ to this day - . This my Dear Lucia is my Idea of In-creasing our Blessings by suitable reflections (p. 6) on their existence while they pass & rea-lizing them to be in our possession whilst we enjoy them to the full –
Tho this Letter happens to be address’d to my Lucia – it is merely chance - & is ment For all my Children who are ca-pable of reading, & considering it –
Adieu my Dear Lucia & be assured that I am your affectionate Papa
[Dated:] February 24th 1795
[Numbered:] 23.
[Noted:] Allusion to inprison-ment at Castine
My dear Lucia
In my last to you, I promised to make the Mode of increasing our Enjoy-ments, the Subject of a future Letter – apropos – (I suppose You speak french my dear by this time) my meaning is that by suitable reflections on the Blessings that we are in the daily engagement of, we may heighten their relish & augment their Effects – For Instance My dear – Your fine cudley[sic] Cheeks & lovely Countenance shew that you are in the Enjoyment of perfect health – but I will ask you if whole days do not pass without your ever reflecting at all on the Blessing of Health, without which nothing on earth can have its true re-lish – I am not fond of anticipating Evil, nor do I here ^ mean to recommend it otherwise than as (p. 2) a dark shade in a picture in order to set of a principal Object to better advantage – Now my Lucia in order that you may be highly sensible of the very great Blessing You enjoy – suppose For a Moment that You health was vanished ^ gone - & your bloom vanished - & that long & painful Sickness had confined You to your Chamber For a long time - & no prospect to be discovered of a speedy recovery. Your Mates visiting You From one time to another without your having it even in your power to enjoy the agreableness[sic] of their Visits, because of pain or weakness. Should you not think what inestimable Favour they enjoy’d, when You see them leaving your Room in the bloom of health & Vigour – the same Blessing You thoughtlessly enjoy’d but a few days or weeks before – but now deprived of it – How ardently would you wish (p. 3) it might once again be restor’d to You again that You might know how to prize it – that You might enjoy it in its full extent as it pass’d – Well My Dear Lucia – without the dreadful Admonition – realized in Sickness itself, ^ by reflecting on this Blessing as I have suggested can You not be sen-sible of what You enjoy - & by that means enjoy the Blessing in a more exalted degree - & with a higher Sense of Gratitude to the Author of it?
So I could instance in many – in every other Enjoyment – You say My Dear You go to dancing School twice in a Week – I dare say You enjoy it very will & yet I very much doubt whether even in that You are fully aware of the extent of the enjoy-ment – Suppose You ^ left to be Scratch’d from the society of your youthful Companions & the plea-sureable Amusement, by any reverse of fortune (p. 4) & by removing into the far distant Wilderness was wholly depriv’d of all this scene of gay Amusement & agreable Companions – without a possibility of seeing them again for a long time, if ever – Oh! with what Keenness would You long for One more of those agreable Interviews – which You had formerly enjoyed only as a thing of Course – agreable enough, to be sure – but with out any particular Attention to the Blessing –
So we may say of Our Dress – do we know the want of it? - & is the full fed sto-mach sensible of the Gnawings of Hunger. In order that we may be sensible of the Blessings We enjoy, let us only contrast them with their Oposites[sic] & the Work is done – What do You say my Dear Lucia will such reflections lessen or Augment your Enjoyments? in my Opinion they (p. 5) will increase them – For we are very apt to be insensible of the favour we enjoy till we have learn’d their value by their Loss –
In the Beginning of the late War my Dear, I thot I was a very Great Son of Liberty as the Whigs were call’d – And I really was so, according to the general Accep-tation of the Term – but I confess that I never knew the meaning of the Word ^ Liberty till such time as I was wholly depriv’d of it – by being confin’d in a Prison with-out any probability of Redemption – then & not till then I found ^ was sensible of the Value of Liberty - & it made so deep an impression on your my mind, that I believe in my heart I am the better & the happier for it eversince ^ to this day - . This my Dear Lucia is my Idea of In-creasing our Blessings by suitable reflections (p. 6) on their existence while they pass & rea-lizing them to be in our possession whilst we enjoy them to the full –
Tho this Letter happens to be address’d to my Lucia – it is merely chance - & is ment For all my Children who are ca-pable of reading, & considering it –
Adieu my Dear Lucia & be assured that I am your affectionate Papa
[Dated:] February 24th 1795
[Numbered:] 23.
[Noted:] Allusion to inprison-ment at Castine
Archives Number: 1005/4.1.1-03#30
U. S. National Park Service
Permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this website.
Courtesy of National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site (1005/4.1.1-3#30)
Public domain
Peleg Wadsworth Papers (1005/004.001), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Correspondence - Outgoing (1005/004.001.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, Letterbook - 1794-1807 (1005/004.001.001-003), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Correspondence - Outgoing (1005/004.001.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, Letterbook - 1794-1807 (1005/004.001.001-003), (LONG-FileUnitName)
Image
Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Code: LONG
Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
NPS Museum Catalog Number : LONG 27923
Title: Finding Aid to the Wadsworth-Longfellow Family (1610-1971) Papers, 1610-1971 (bulk dates 1745-1950)
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#WL
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#WL
2021/06/03
02/24/1795
Manuscript letter in the Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers, Peleg Wadsworth and Family Papers, Peleg Wadsworth Papers, Correspondence, Outgoing, Letterbook - 1794-1807. (1005/4.1.1-3#30)
Public Can View
Organization: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Friday, August 25, 2023 10:26:26 PM
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 3:15:10 PM
1005-4-1-1-03-30 p1.jpg
jpg
5.0 MB
Historic