eed
what, in common with your hands, I would invoke for you,--the aid, the
consolation that is divine. God grant it to you,--all that affection can
ask,--all that affliction can need,--prays

Your friend and brother,

O. DEWEY.

To Dr. Channing.

NEW BEDFORD, Oct. 16, 1827.

MY DEAR AND REVERED FRIEND,--Excuse me for calling you so; may the
formalities and the English reserves excuse me too.

I have had two letters from New York, one from Mr. Sewall, and the other
from Mr. Ware, which are so pressing as really to give me some trouble.
Do say something to me on this subject, if you have anything to say.
There certainly are many reasons, and strong as numerous, why I should
not at present leave New Bedford,-why I should not take such a post. I
cannot say I am made to doubt what I ought to do; but I have a fear lest
[140] I should not do right, lest I should love my ease too well, lest
it should be said to me in the other world, "A great opportunity, a
glorious field was opened to you, and you did not improve it,"--lest,
in other words, I should not act upon considerations sufficiently high,
comprehensive, and disinterested,--fit, in short, for contemplation from
the future world as well as from the present.

I do not write asking you to reply; for I do not suppose you have
anything to say which you would not have suggested when I was with you.
Indeed, I believe I write, as much as for anything, because I want to
communicate with you about something, and this is uppermost in my mind.

Present my affectionate regards to Mrs. Channing and the children, and
to Miss Gibbs.

Yours most affectionately,

O. DEWEY. To Rev. Henry Ware.

NEW BEDFORD, March 29, 1829.

MY DEAR FRIEND,--I cannot let you go off without my blessing. I did not
know of your purpose till last evening, or I should not have left
myself to write to you in the haste of a few minutes snatched on Sunday
evening, to say nothing of the aching nerves' and the misled hand that
usually come along with it. By the by, I have a good mind to desire you
to propose a year's exchange [for me] to somebody in England. If you
meet with a man who is neither too good nor too bad, suppose you suggest
it to him,--not as from me, however.

I should think that a man, in going to England, would feel the evil of
belonging to a sect, unless that sect [141] embraced all the good and
wise and gifted,--which can be said of no sect. The sectarianism of
sects, however, is t