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MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



To Dr. William Sweetser. 



Cambridge, Juiie 26, 1850. 



My dear Doctor Sweetser, — It gave me very great pleasure, a few days since, to receive your 

 kind letter. My pleasure was greater as you did not absolutely owe it to me, I not having 

 written since I received a note from you. I was, moreover, very glad to see the cheerful tone in 

 which you wrote, not exultingly, as one overborne with good fortune, but as one calmly satisfied, 

 or at least resigned, to the share of blessings assigned to him. Four years' work is ended, and 

 you have returned to your family to take a little well-earned rest. I wish you to enjoy it with all 

 my heart, and I only wish that you were so successful with the pecuniary results of your labors 

 that you may be enabled to leave them when they shall become a burden and a bore, and enjoy 

 without anxiety a healthful old age. I often recur to it as my misfortune that I am not nearer 

 to you, and enabled to compare thoughts with you upon the great laws which hold all things in 

 their grasp. I often think that you would share with me in conclusions, and go with me in the 

 conception of truths that I am now obliged to ponder over alone. 



Of all the men that I have known in life, you, Dr. Ware, and T. alone have I held to 

 on terms of such entire confidence as to open and go through with a subject without some 

 shadow of reserve. With poor T. it was but a reckless abandon. But it was pleasant, if not 

 profitable. With Dr. Ware I have pursued many a sharp argument, and been righted on many 

 nice points ; but we always ended no nearer to agreement than we commenced. With you, on 

 the contrary, I have found sympathy as well as aid in many a discussion " fit for reasoning man," 

 and have always derived confidence in conclusions from the support of your authority. But 

 where are you all now ? T, away beyond the reach of a free interchange of ideas as they arise 

 in frequent personal intercourse, and W. living in a constant combat with bodily infirmity, that 

 takes away all the enthusiasm of his mind and a great portion of the enjoyment of life. My 

 solitude has pressed upon me the more this past winter and spring from the deaths of Mr. Chan- 

 ning, Dr. Harris, and Judge Fay. With Channing and Harris I have been upon terms of pleasant 

 intercourse for nearly twenty years, and with Judge Fay for nearly as long a period. I have 

 had a great respect for him, as a high-minded and honorable man, and a great liking for him as 

 a kind-hearted and pleasant companion. I say companion, for although some fifteen years my 

 senior, this difference did not count in the character of our intercourse, as he was so young 

 for his years that I always thought that he would outlive me. But I have seen him for the last 

 time, and the parting with him has been a great grief to me. But sufficient for the day is 

 the evil thereof, and I will hold you no longer in this melancholy strain. For after all life 

 is not so bad as many accuse it of being. When I look round me, I am astonished at the number 

 of things that I have to enjoy, and to occupy the consciousness of existence, the power of 

 thought upon, to produce pleasurable feelings, or a sense of satisfaction ; and it is the way for true 

 wi lorn to make the most of things within its reach, both in time and place, and, if there are 

 some bitter viands upon the table of life, endeavor to pass them over in our feast, or, if they 

 must be eaten, do it without making mouths at them. Will it not be possible for us to meet 

 somewhere or somehow this summer ? If we can contrive to do so, it will be a great pleasure to 

 me. I suppose that you remain at Fort Washington for some two or three months. I wish you 

 to let me know how long ; and although I will not engage to do it, yet if I can see the way quite 

 clear, and nothing occurs to prevent it, I may take a trip to New York for the sake of a day or 

 two with you, not forgetting at the same time that you go through Boston without turning aside 

 to see me. At any rate, write to me soon, as a letter is always welcome. Pray remember me to 

 Mrs. Sweetser, and take for yourself and her the best regards of Mrs. Treadwell. 



Ever truly yours, 



Daniel Treadwell. 



