John Quincy Adams to John Adams, May 16, 1801

Berlin 16. May 1801.

My dear Sir.

M r: Welsh proposes to return home by
the way of Amsterdam, and will be the bearer of this letter— With it, I enclose the 4 th: number of the Gazette, and copies of former letters to
yourself and to my dear mother. 1

I wish I could promise myself a more speedy departure than that
which I anticipated in my last Letter to you; but we can no longer form a hope of my
wife’s immediate recovery— There is I persuade myself no danger in the weakness which
remains upon her; but she is unable to walk, and even to stand— Impatient as I am to get
home, I cannot force the nature of things, and must content my self with the hope of
being released from this place by the beginning of July.— My child is very well.

I have been packing up my books and the baggage I have determined
to take with me— The little library that I have collected here, bears no comparison with
that I sent home, from Lisbon— It consists chiefly of german books; a language in which
some of our countrymen think there is nothing like elegant or useful literature— As the
Parisian fine lady of whom Montesquieu tells, could not conceive how it was possible to
be a Persian.— 2 My principal difficulty
with regard to my books will be to find a place that will contain them, but I must not
perplex myself about lodging them, while I know not where to lodge myself and my
family.

I am ever dutifully your’s

A.