This was written to a boy ten years old. I wonder if he was really able to assimilate it.
I shall pass rapidly over the next few years, for, while there are many letters which make interesting reading, there are so many more of the later years of greater historical value that I must not yield to the temptation to linger.
The three brothers were all sent to Phillips Academy to prepare for Yale, from which college their father was also graduated.
The following letter from Finley to his brothers was written while he was temporarily at home, and shows the deep religious bent of his mind which he kept through life:—
CHARLESTOWN, March 15, 1805.
MY DEAR BROTHERS,—I now write you again to inform you that mama had a baby, but it was born dead and has just been buried. Now you have three brothers and three sisters in heaven and I hope you and I will meet them there at our death. It is uncertain when we shall die, but we ought to be prepared for it, and I hope you and I shall.
I read a question in Davie's "Sermons" the last Sunday which was this:— Suppose a bird should take one dust of this earth and carry it away once in a thousand years, and you was to take your choice either to be miserable in that time and happy hereafter, or happy in that time and miserable hereafter, which would you choose? Write me an answer to this in your next letter….
I enclose you a little book called the "Christian Pilgrim." It is for both of you.
We are all tolerable well except mama, though she is more comfortable now than she was. We all send a great deal of love to you. I must now bid you adieu.
I remain your affectionate brother,