the dust from the wings of a butterfly, each minute particle of
which appeared as large as a common fly. He mentioned several very
interesting circumstances; but I must defer particularizing them
until I can have the privilege of verbally communicating them to my
dear friends at Battenville. Guelma joins with me in wishing love
distributed to all.
Again she writes:
Beloved Parents: The second Seventh day of my short stay in
Hamilton arrives and finds me scarcely capable of informing you how
the intervening moments have been employed; but I hope they have
not passed without some improvement. Indeed, we should all improve,
perceptibly too, were we to attend to the instructions which are
here given, for the advancement both of moral and literary
pursuits. May I improve in both; but it is far easier for us to
perceive where others should reform, than to observe and correct
our own imperfections, while perhaps our failings are completely
disgusting in the sight of others. I find it very difficult leaving
off old habits so as to have a vacuum for the formation of those
which are new and more advantageous.
My letter will be short this week and I can assign no other cause
than that my ideas do not freely flow. The difference in weather is
quite material between this and our northern clime. Snow commenced
falling about 12 o'clock to-day and continued till evening; but,
Father, it was not such a storm as the one in which we travelled
during the second day of our journey to the beautiful and
sequestered shades of Hamilton. The cause of my neglecting to write
last week was not the absence of this mind from home, but that it
is obliged to occupy every moment in studies.
A fire in Philadelphia gives her an opportunity for this bit of
description:
I was requested, 5th day evening last, about 7 o'clock, by one of
the scholars, to step out and view the Aurora Borealis, which she
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