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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