Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 1

‘ [87] the Middle Ages.’ The book now lies open on the sofa, where I was lounging. My paper is before me, and pen in hand. The past has gone through my mind with its thronging associations. . . . You have quite introduced me to your master [Mr. Bleecker]. I should like him for his law, his literature; and should not dislike him for the singleness of his life. My own reflections though, and the advice of others, tell me that it is better to study with one whose business is other than that of a counsellor; the drudgery, writ-making, &c., of an office is what a young student ought to undergo. Give me my first year and a half in the entirely theoretical studies of a law-school and my remainder in a thronged business office, where I can see the law in those shapes in which a young lawyer can alone see and practise it. It is years which make the counsellor.

I have just read Persius. I value him little. My mind, like yours, is full of plans of study, few of which I am ever able to compass. My reflection calls up such a multitude of books unread, that I am lost,—like Spenser's Una and the Redcrosse Knight,—

So many pathes, so many turnings seene,
That which of them to take, in diverse doubt they been.

The Faerie Queene.

I wish to read the principal classics, particularly Latin ones. I fear I shall never reach the Greek. I have thought of Thucydides, the hardest but completest historian. I shall not touch him probably. Tell me your experiences of Herodotus. . . .

From your true friend,

C. S.

To Jonathan F. Stearns, Bedford, Mass.

Sunday eve, Aug. 7, 1831.

my friend, my old College Fiend,—. . . You ask if I hold fast to Anti-masonry? When I do not, pronounce me a recreant. I hold fast to it through some ridicule, and, I dare say, slurs upon my sense. Truth has ever been reviled when she first appeared, whether as the bearer of a glorious system of religion, or of the laws which govern this universe. Time is her great friend. I do not hardly understand from your letter whether you join with me or no. Dr. Beecher has come out manfully. At the celebration in Boston, he prayed that the great and good cause in which we are engaged might find acceptance above; and if ever cause did find that acceptance, this will.

I think of hitching upon the law at Cambridge this coming Commencement. I am grateful for the encouraging word you give me. I am rather despondent, and I meet from none of my family those vivifying expressions which a young mind always heartily accepts. My father says nought by way of encouragement, He seems determined to let me shape my own course, so that if I am wise, I shall be wise for myself; and if I am foolish, I alone shall bear it. It may be well that it is so. I do not revolt from taking my fate