Henry Cruger; The Colleague of Edmund Burke in the British Parliament. a Paper Read Before the New York Historical Society, January 4th, 1859 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: APPENDIX. LETTER FROM MR. CRUGER TO MRS. VAN SCHAACK, HIS SISTER. Bristol, 20th Sept., 1771. My Dear Bess! A letter from you always gives me satisfaction; two doubles my happiness. That by the Ellen and that by Mr. Frank Lewis are those which I now have the great pleasure of seeing before me. 1 was made infinitely happy by the news of your recovery. May the Almighty bless you with a greater share of health for the time to come! I fear your illness has too much affected your animal spirits. Don't give away, Bess. You talk too early of retirement. Believe me, a little society is a cordial to our minds, a sweetner of life. To have a few friends to divert our gloomy thoughts (which are at times the portion of all that are human), to alleviate our cares, to soften our sorrows, to hear our complaints, and assist us in need; oh! it is Heaven upon earth, a sovreign antidote against the ills of life. " Friends are to friends as lesser Gods." A true friend, the Scripture says, is as thine own soul. Keep up therefore an acquaintance, my dear. Good women enough are to be found. Life will lie heavy enough on your hands without a little recreation in the society ofagreeable friends. Stay at home too much, and you will grow melancholy, which will destroy your health more than poison. A cheerful heart is a blessing that all ought to seek, tho' so few enjoy. When the mind is gloomy, the body must be sick. There is a wonderful tho' natural sympathy betwixt the two. Were you gay in extreme, I should be as sorry to hear it, as I am of your being so fond of solitude and retirement. There is a medium in all things. Discretion will point it out; and permit me to add what I expect you will believe, it being as sacred a truth as I ever penned, that whilst it is in my power to give or to assis...