Benjamin Franklin to James Read, August 17, 1745
Saturday morning, Aug. 17, ’45
Dear J[emmy],
I have been reading your letter over again, and since you desire an answer, I sit me down to write you one; yet, as I write in the market, [it] will, I believe, be but a short one, tho’ I may be long about it. I approve of your method of writing one’s mind, when one is too warm to speak it with temper: but being myself quite cool in this affair, I might as well speak as write, if I had an opportunity. Your copy of Kempis, must be a corrupt one, if it has that passage as you quote it, in omnibus requiem quaesivi, sed non inveni, nisi in angulo cum libello . 8 The good father understood pleasure (requiem) better, and wrote, in angulo cum puella . Correct it thus, without hesitation. I know there is another reading, in angulo puellae; but this reject, tho’ more to the point , as an expression too indelicate.
Are you an attorney by profession, and do you know no better, how to chuse a proper court in which to bring your action? Would you submit to the decision of a husband, a cause between you and his wife? 9 Don’t you know, that all wives are in the right? It may be you don’t, for you are yet but a young husband. But see, on this head, the learned Coke, that oracle of the law, in his chapter De Jus Marit.Angl . 1 I advise you not to bring it to trial; for if you do, you’ll certainly be cast.
Frequent interruptions make it impossible for me to go thro’ all your letter. I have only time to remind you of the saying of that excellent old philosopher, Socrates, that in differences among friends, they that make the first concessions are the WISEST ; and to hint to you, that you are in danger of losing that honour in the present case, if you are not very speedy in your acknowledgments; which I persuade myself you will be, when you consider the sex of your adversary.
Your visits never had but one thing disagreeable in them, that is, they were always too short. I shall exceedingly regret the loss of them, unless you continue, as you have begun, to make it up to me by long letters. I am dear J[emmy], with sincerest love to our dearest Suky, Your very affectionate friend and cousin,
B. Franklin