lace your
standard of action so high as to require great vigilance in living
up to it.

In regard to your business transactions, let every thing be so
registered in your books, that any person, without difficulty, can
understand the whole of your concerns. You may be cut off in the
midst of your pursuits, and it is of no small consequence that your
temporal affairs should always be so arranged that you may be in
readiness.

If it is important that you should be well prepared in this point
of view, how much more important is it that you should be prepared
in that which relates to eternity!

You are young, and the course of life seems open, and pleasant
prospects greet your ardent hopes; but you must remember that the
race is not always to the swift, and that, however flattering may
be our prospects, and however zealously you may seek pleasure, you
can never find it except by cherishing pure principles and
practicing right conduct. My heart is full on this subject, my dear
brother, and it is the only one on which I feel the least anxiety.

While here, your conduct has been such as to meet my entire
approbation; but the scenes of another land may be more than your
principles will stand against. I say _may be_, because young men of
as fair promise as yourself have been lost by giving a small
latitude (innocent in the first instance) to their propensities.
But I pray the Father of all mercies to have you in his keeping,
and preserve you amid temptations.

I can only add my wish to have you write me frequently and
particularly, and that you will embrace every opportunity of
gaining information.

Your affectionate brother, AMOS LAWRENCE.

TO ABBOTT LAWRENCE.

In his politics, Mr. Lawrence was a Federalist, and then a Whig. He
served for one term in the State Legislature as a Representative from
Boston, with credit to himself, but afterward avoided any active
participation in public events. When his nephew-by-marriage, General
Pierce, was a candidate for the Presidency, he was very much gratified
personally by the selection of the Democracy, but declined to vote for
him. In a letter to a friend, written at this time, he said: "I had a
charming ride yesterday with my nephew, Frank Pierce, and told him I
thought he must occupy the White House the next term, but that I wo