and aid of Mr. Forsyth, I shall have a disposition to reward. One
thing more, and I will close this letter. Never let an indigent
person ask, without receiving _something_, if you have the means;
always recollecting in what light the widow's mite was viewed."

PHILADELPHIA, _Nov_. 28, 1796.

"The assurances you give me of applying diligently to your studies,
and fulfilling those obligations which are enjoined by your Creator
and due to his creatures, are highly pleasing and satisfactory to
me. I rejoice in it on two accounts: first, as it is the sure means
of laying the foundation of your own happiness, and rendering you,
if it should please God to spare your life, a useful member of
society hereafter: and, secondly, that I may, if I live to enjoy
the pleasure, reflect that I have been, in some degree,
instrumental in effecting these purposes.

"You are now extending into that stage of life when good or bad
habits are formed; when the mind will be turned to things useful
and praiseworthy, or to dissipation and vice. Fix on whichever it
may, it will stick by you; for you know it has been said, and
truly, that 'as the twig is bent so it will grow.' This, in a
strong point of view, shows the propriety of letting your
inexperience be directed by maturer advice, and in placing guard
upon the avenues which lead to idleness and vice. The latter will
approach like a thief, working upon your passions--encouraged,
perhaps, by bad examples--the propensity to which will increase in
proportion to the practice of it, and your yielding. This
admonition proceeds from the purest affection for you; but I do not
mean by it that you are to become a stoic, or to deprive yourself,
in the intervals of study, of any recreations or manly exercise
which reason approves.

"'Tis well to be on good terms with all your fellow-students, and I
am pleased to hear you are so; but while a courteous behavior is
due to all, select the most deserving only for your friendships,
and, before this becomes intimate, weigh their dispositions and
character _well_. True friendship is a plant of slow growth; to be
sincere, there must be a congeniality of temper and pursuits.
Virtue and vice can not be allied; nor can idleness and industry.
Of course, if you resolve to adhere to the two