former of these
extremes, an intimacy with those who incline to the latter of them
would be extremely embarrassing to you: it would be a
stumbling-block in your way, and act like a millstone hung to your
neck, for it is the nature of idleness and vice to obtain as many
votaries as they can.

"I would guard you, too, against imbibing hasty and unfavorable
impressions of any one. Let your judgment always balance well
before you decide; and even then, where there is no occasion for
expressing an opinion, it is best to be silent, for there is
nothing more certain than that it is at all times more easy to make
enemies than friends. And besides, to speak evil of any one, unless
there are unequivocal proofs of their deserving it, is an injury
for which there is no adequate reparation. For, as Shakespeare
says, 'He that robs me of my good name enriches not himself, but
renders me poor indeed,' or words to that effect. Keep in mind that
scarcely any change would be agreeable to you at _first_, from the
sudden transition, and from never having been accustomed to shift
or rough it; and, moreover, that if you meet with collegiate fare,
it will be unmanly to complain. My paper reminds me it is time to
conclude."

"MOUNT VERNON, 4_th June_, 1797.

"Your letter of the twenty-ninth ultimo came to hand by the post of
Friday, and eased my mind of many unpleasant sensations and
reflections on your account. It has, indeed, done more--it has
filled it with pleasure more easy to be conceived than expressed;
and if your sorrow and repentance for the disquietude occasioned by
the preceding letter--your resolution to abandon the ideas which
were therein expressed--are sincere, I shall not only heartily
forgive, but will forget also, and bury in oblivion all that has
passed....

"You must not suffer the resolution you have recently entered into,
to operate as the mere result of a momentary impulse, occasioned by
the letters you have received from hence. This resolution should be
founded on sober reflection, and a thorough conviction of your
error; otherwise it will be as wavering as the wind, and become the
sport of conflicting passions, which will occasion such a lassitude
in your exertions as to render your studies of little avail. To
insure permanenc