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Here you will cry how variable and uncertain is the conduct of the little actors on this unstable Theatre! If Mr Warren was at home he would unite with me in best regards to our friends at Fairfield; but as his time is almost wholly devoted to the public, he resides little at Plymouth this summer. Do you not begin to wish your correspondent would not be quite so prolix? Patience my friend, I will throw aside the pen as soon as I have subscribed the name of yours invariably, M Warren mwp1 1. On this incident, see aa to ja, June 17, 1776, afc 2: 14. See also “Nathaniel Lothrop” in Clifford K. Shipton and John L. Sibley, Sibley’s Harvard Graduates: Biographical Sketches of Those Who Attended Harvard College, 17 vols. (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society , 1933–75), 14:29–30. 2. Ellen Lothrop appears to have fled Plymouth—she lived across the street from the Warrens—for her hometown of Fairfield, Connecticut. She might possibly be staying with her brother, John Sloss Hobart, at her parents’ home. 3. During the Bunker Hill fight, the British burnt Charlestown, across the river from Boston, causing considerable damage to that city and leaving hundreds homeless. 4. Omission indicated thus in manuscript. Unfortunately for modern scholars, Warren seems to have occasionally excised personal material from her recopied letters. 21 to harriet shirley temple Plymouth July 30th 1775 My dear Madam, The confusion of the times leaves me uncertain to what place to direct an answer to your last agreeable letter: but wherever this finds you, may it be in some happy part of this variable world. I take a large share in the painful vicissitudes, you have experienced within a few months;—was this a fix, and permanent state we might justly exclaim at the unequal distributions of providence;—we see the good and virtuous groaning under the pressure of misfortune, and innocence borne down and suffering in a tide of affliction, while the guilty triumph in successful villany, and the dark deeds of venality, oppression, and hypocricy, 56  to harriet temple, july 1775 proper in the stained palm of the high-handed offender. But as the thorny road we tread is but a prelude to a more durable existence, who can pronounce decisively what events of time may be deemed, either unfortunate or happy, however varied the aspects which mark the designations of heaven. What a consolation is it that a midst the severest afflictions the ear of him who holds the balance of nature in his hand, is open to the cry of the distressed: and when the veil that now darkens our paths shall be drawn aside, and the grand oeconomy of the universe disclosed to our wondering eyes, the whole rational creation will acknowledge both the wisdom and goodness of the final adjustment. I lately rode hastily by your once beautiful and pleasant habitation; but had not an idea that you still resided there amidst the devastation and danger that surround it. I had been informed that you left Ten Hills, soon after the sad catastrophe of the town of Charlestown1 —otherways nothing should have prevented me calling on a Lady I so much esteem. I much regretted that it was not in my power to see you afterward, but many circumstance made it necessary for me to return immediately to Plymouth. There I hope for a visit before the approaching autumn is past;—you will make us happy by spending a little time in this part of the country. Your friends Mr and Mrs Bowdoin2 are in our neighbourhood;—they left me yesterday after a visit of two or three days: I was afflicted that they were obliged to hasten their return home by the indisposition of so good a man. His health is so far impaired that it appears to me his friends will ’ere long be deprived of the society of so valuable a person, and his country of his assistance at a time when it stands in the utmost need of men of the best abilities and integrity, to strengthen the councels, and aid in extricating from the complicated difficulties into which America is plunged. Heaven grant that the civil sword which now hangs over us, may be resheathed before it is again dipped in human gore! May the convulsions of war which shake this miserable land, and the animosities of party which agitate the bosom of individuals...

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