nswering every question asked by the parents. It
is comforting to the present-day parent to learn that human nature was
much the same in those pious days of old, differing only in degree, and
that there is hope for the most wayward son and careless correspondent.

The following letters from the elder Morse I shall include as being of
rather more than ordinary interest, and as showing the breadth of his
activity.

CHARLESTOWN, December 23, 1806.
To THE BISHOP OP LONDON,

REV'D AND RESPECTED SIR,--I presume that it might be agreeable to you to
know the precise state of the property which originally belonged to the
Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia.

I have with some pains obtained the law of that State respecting this
singular business.

I find that it destroys _the establishment_ and asserts that "all
property belonging to the said (Protestant Episcopal) Church devolved on
the good people of this Commonwealth (i.e., Virginia) on the dissolution
of the British Government here, in the same degree in which the right and
interest of the said Church was therein derived from them," and
authorizes the overseers of the poor of any county "in which any glebe
land is vacant, or shall become so by the death or removal of any
incumbent, to sell all such land and appurtenances and every other
species of property incident thereto to the highest bidder"--"Provided
that nothing herein contained shall authorize an appropriation to _any
religious purpose whatever_."

I make no comments on the above. I believe no other State in the Union
has, in this respect, imitated the example of Virginia.

I take the liberty to send you a few small tracts for your acceptance in
token of my high respect for your character and services.

Believe me, sir, unfeignedly,

Your obedient servant,
J. MORSE.

December 26, 1806.
LINDLEY MURRAY ESQ.,

DEAR SIR,--Your polite note and the valuable books accompanying it,
forwarded by our friend Perkins, of New York, have been duly and
gratefully received.

You will perceive, by the number of the "Panoplist" enclosed, that we are
strangers neither to your works nor your character. It has given me much
pleasure as an American to make both more extensively known among my
countrymen.

I have purchased several hundred of your spelling books for a charitable
society to which I belong, and they have been dispersed in the new
settlements in our country, where I hope they will do immediate good,
besi