"Dissent is cold and sour; it never appeals to the affections, but it
scatters denunciations, and rules by terror. Scepticism is proud
and self-sufficient. It refuses to believe in mysteries and deals in
rhetoric and sophistry, and flatters the vanity, by exalting human
reason. My poor lost flock will see the change, and I fear, feel it too.
Besides, absence is a temporary death. Now I am gone from them, they
will forget my frailties and infirmities, and dwell on what little good
might have been in me, and, perhaps, yearn towards me.

"If I was to return, perhaps I could make an impression on the minds of
some, and recall two or three, if not more, to a sense of duty. What a
great thing that would be, wouldn't it? And if I did, I would get our
bishop to send me a pious, zealous, humble-minded, affectionate, able
young man, as a successor; and I would leave my farm, and orchard, and
little matters, as a glebe for the Church. And who knows but the
Lord may yet rescue Slickville from the inroads of ignorant fanatics,
political dissenters, and wicked infidels?

"And besides, my good friend, I have much to say to you, relative to
the present condition and future prospects of this great country. I have
lived to see a few ambitious lawyers, restless demagogues, political
preachers, and unemployed local officers of provincial regiments,
agitate and sever thirteen colonies at one time from the government of
England. I have witnessed the struggle. It was a fearful, a bloody and
an unnatural one. My opinions, therefore, are strong in proportion as my
experience is great. I have abstained on account of their appearing like
preconceptions from saying much to you yet, for I want to see more of
this country, and to be certain, that I am quite right before I speak.

"When you return, I will give you my views on some of the great
questions of the day. Don't adopt them, hear them and compare them with
your own. I would have you think for yourself, for I am an old man now
and sometimes I distrust my powers of mind.

"The state of this country you, in your situation, ought to be
thoroughly acquainted with. It is a very perilous one. Its prosperity,
its integrity, nay its existence as a first-rate power, hangs by a
thread, and that thread but little better and stronger than a cotton
one. _Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat_. I look in vain for that
constitutional vigour, and intellectual power, which once ruled the
destinies of this