Thursday, July 17, 2014

John Brown to John Brown Jr., January 18, 1841

Hudson, Jan. 18, 1841.

Dear Son John, — Since I parted with you at Hudson some thoughts have passed through my mind which my intense anxiety for your welfare prompts me to communicate by writing. I think the situation in which you have been placed by Providence at this early period of your life will afford to yourself and others some little test of the sway you may be expected to exert over minds in after life, and I am glad, on the whole, to have you brought in some measure to the test in your youth. If you cannot now go into a disorderly country school and gain its confidence and esteem, and reduce it to good order, and waken up the energies and the very soul of every rational being in it, — yes, of every mean, ill-behaved, ill-governed boy and girl that compose it, and secure the good-will of the parents, — then how are you to stimulate asses to attempt a passage of the Alps? If you run with footmen and they should weary you, how should you contend with horses? If in the land of peace they have wearied you, then how will you do in the swelling of Jordan? Shall I answer the question myself? “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth not.” Let me say to you again, love them all, and commend them and yourself to the God to whom Solomon sought in his youth, and he shall bring it to pass. You have heard me tell of dividing a school into two large spelling-classes, and of its effects; if you should think best, and can remember the process, you can try it. Let the grand reason, that one course is right and another wrong, be kept continually before your own mind and before your school.

From your affectionate father,
John Brown.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 139-40

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