THE BEGINNING OF HIS WORK AS PROFESSOR. 135 



TO MR. G. S. SILLIMAN. 



YALE COLLEGE, February 21, 1805. 



THE solemn trust which you so tenderly commit 



to me in case of an event, which may God of his infinite 

 mercy avert, I with all seriousness and sincerity accept. 

 As you do not doubt the strength of my affection for you, 

 our dear Hepsa, and the lovely babes, so you cannot hesi- 

 tate to believe that my affections would be seconded by my 

 principles and exertions. So long, then, as I have life or 

 ability, you may rest assured that any relicts of a brother, 

 whom I love as I do my own life, would share my last far- 

 thing, and the little ones would command all my vigilance 

 and wisdom to form their hearts to piety and their under- 

 standings to knowledge. Do not, I beseech you, lay it to 

 heart that I cannot visit you. We should be obliged to 

 part even then ; and would it not be more painful than to 

 make up our minds to it now ? I trust firmly, cheerfully, 

 and confidently in Heaven, that we shall meet again. I 

 have not one gloomy foreboding, one desponding thought 

 or doubtful apprehension. Do not think I want feeling. 

 Most sensibly do I feel the idea that I must be separated 

 for more than a year from those I love ; but I will not give 

 way to such feelings; my mind is made up, and I go, 

 resolutely and cheerfully, to meet whatever is before me. 

 I have also a firm confidence, under God, that I shall not 

 be influenced by the infidelity or the splendid pleasures 

 and gilded fopperies of the Old World. Spare me notj 

 when I return, if you find that I have made a fool of my- 

 self. My mind is bent on acquiring professional science, 

 a knowledge of mankind, that general information which 

 shall give me pleasing resources for reflection and conver- 

 sation, those polished manners which shall prove a per- 

 petual letter of introduction, and that easy, elegant, and 

 chastened style of speech which shall give a garnish to all 

 the rest. I have not the vanity to believe I shall accom- 

 plish all this ; but such are my objects 



