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no great opinion of a letter whose principle Merit is in Its Length. But you are sensible that in Boston we cannot Always command our own time. Yet as I have a Moment more I will tell you I wish you was in this City when you might chat with me this Morning. We might Dine together in a Large circle of agreeable friends. The Evening Exhibits a Ball given by the Govenor , when your presence would gladden the company.1 This would make Variety suficient for one day to gratify the most Curious of our sex. My sister joins in best compliments to Dr. Tillotson, his Lady & yourself. Mr. Otis will call & pay his own Friendly Respects at the Mannor in a short time.2 To the good Lady who presides & to the happy Inhabitants present the sincere Regards Of your very affectionate Friend M Warren Boston Nov 23 1780 Wesleyan University library, rc 1. John Hancock, who was elected in 1780 as governor and reelected each year to 1785, was famous for giving balls and other splendid entertainments not quite to the taste of “old republicans” like mow. 2. The Otis here may be mow’s younger brother Samuel Alleyne Otis. 58 to winslow warren Plimouth Dec 16 1780 My Dear Son, By a vessel captured & brought to Boston, I understand from one Capt. Carr that you Embarked for Europe about the 28th of Sept. But none of your letters since the Carteel1 from N foundland have reached us Except those via St. Eustatia Dated August 10th & 23d . If you have been gaurded through a long and Hazzardous voyage & have safely ar rived at the desired Haven, you have found some letters from your Friends, though doubtless Many have miscaried. My concern for you has been Much increased since the Report of a Violent Gale which has greatly Damaged the shiping in the Channel. Yet I Endeavour to Hush my fears, to suspend my cares, & quietly Repose in the protection of that Being who spread the ocean round the Ball & holds the 146  to winslow warren, december 1780 Fabrick in His Hand, Whose Fiat supports the universe, Who Established the Laws of Nature, yet when the purposes of His Goverment require it, commissions the Tempest to Destroy & the Besom of Ruin in a Moment sweeps whole cities from Existence. The particulars of the Late Depopulations at Barbados, the Earth quakes in Jamaca & the Dreadful Effects of the Huricanes in several other Islands, you will have by public accounts as well as by private letters & perhaps more accurate than we can at present transmit you. But by what we can collect, the Desolation is greater than any that has Happened on this side of the globe for more than a century. It is said many thousand Houses were Destroyed at Barbados, St. Vincents &c, by the inundation on the 11th October , & the whole town of Savanah-LaVar Except one House sunk by an Earth quake the same week. At the time that Multitudes were perishing both by the Land & sea, my W—w was traversing the Deep.—But He has Escaped the perils of the Boistrous Elements and perhaps Ere this has Experienced Dangers of a more fatal tendency. But the same Almighty arm which has Wafted him safe to a Foreign shore can reconduct him to his Natal soil with Health unimpaired, his Honour unimpeached, & his Morals uncorrupt. You have yet a Father that will give you Every Necessary Hint Relative to Mercantile Matters, but if any unexpected Embarasment in your affairs or Disapointment in the way of Bussiness should take place, Let it by no means affect your spirits. Youth, Industry, & commercial Abilities will Extricate from a thousand Difficulties that would sink a Mind of less Vigour and an understanding less improved by Despondency. If you succeed in your Views & Return Beneath the smile of Fortune, let your gratitude be Exeplefyed by your Moderation & prudence. I find you consider your situation while a prisoner a kind of pennance or Rather a just Ballance for the pleasure you Expected to reap on your arrival in Europe. Pleasure is a term of so Indefinite a Nature that one cannot always tell whither to check or to Encourage the pursuit. If as the poet says: “Reason, whole pleasure—all the Days of sense. “Lie in three words: Health, Peace, & Competence—”2 it may be found any where—if in the loose gratification of a Roving appetite for Beauty, if in the Noisey Crakle of convivial Riot, or the...

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