John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, January 9, 1802

Boston 9. Jan y: 1802.

My dear Brother.

I have received three letters from you without making the proper
returns— 1 The occasion of which has
been the continual occupation I have found in moving, repairing and furnishing my
house, and entering upon my office— 2 These things are now chiefly accomplish’d, and I hope in future to have more leisure
for making communications to you.— I can however not promise much in that respect.— My
time will probably for no inconsiderable period be almost engrossed by my private
affairs— Whitcomb, who had got to be of little use to me, has now left me altogether;
and I find myself burdened with the minutest and vilest details of our domestic
economy.— Being so much of a novice in this calling, I perform its duties with
proportionable aukwardness, and must wait for more practice to obtain facility and
dispatch— 3 Meanwhile I suffer a waste
of time, which might else be more agreeably employed—

Seven years of total disuse have so far obliterated all my legal
ideas, that I return to the bar almost as ignorant how the law
is written as when I first commenced student— A certain degree of application
to gather up again the crumbs and fragments of my knowledge in past time, is
indispensible— This picking up of threads and stitches annihilates time again, to a
great amount—

Another circumstance which provides for the further consumption
of the same precious article time, though in a more pleasing manner, is that I have
accepted the invitation of a small Society of choice Spirits, who assemble once a week
for the purpose of reviving and improving their acquaintance with subjects of natural
and experimental philosophy— This institution is in its first infancy, consisting as
yet only of nine members, and limited by their rules to the number of ten— They are,
Judge Davis, and Mess rs: Kirkland, Emerson, Popkin, Tim y: Williams, N. Frazier, Quincy, D r: Jackson, and last of all your humble servant— 4 I promise myself much entertainment and
instruction from it

Now if you allow the possibility that some portion of my hours
may be claimed by business of any kind, you will readily conceive that little will be
left for writing upon literary or political topics, and I wish you to intimate as much
to Dennie— At the same time he may depend upon me, as far as the leisure I can command
will admit.

I propose to send him by the first vessel, or private hand the translation of Bülow; and perhaps some parcels of
Tacitus.— 5 But as they are all so
aukwardly done that I cannot read them my self without disgust, I apprehend he will
find little use to make of them

I know not whether you have recollected your engagement to keep
one of my files of the Port-Folio safely, as they come out— The other I now regularly
receive— But both my sets now are incomplete, and Dennie promised me they should be
completed.— Please to inform him therefore that I want from Number 38 to Number 47.
both inclusive, of one set, and, from Number 19. to the present time, of the other,
besides a prospectus and a Number 1. both of which I received, but lost, by lending
them— 6 I have no doubt but he will
immediately furnish you with all these papers, and I will thank you to forward them,
either by a private hand, or by some vessel to this place.

The numbers missing in your mothers set, which Dennie likewise
promised to complete are 9, 12, 20, 28, 40, 43, and 44.

I shall duly attend to your request, for a copy of the
Massachusetts laws, to be sent with your books in the Spring. 7

With regard to the project concerning which I wrote you some time
since, it is but a project, and depending as I wrote you upon the event of my
experiment here— 8 If I finally
determine upon it, my plan will be to make a settlement upon a scale as extensive as I
can accomplish, and take as many farming families with me, as I think adequate to the
object, and as shall be willing to follow me— The scheme I think may be ripened so as
to furnish employment and secure compensation both to yourself and me— But what the
particulars of your employment or my own would be, I cannot yet say; for I have
nothing yet but the out-line of the plan in my mind, and
must wait for further information, to fill up the detail— Let it remain in the
meantime between ourselves.

You intimate other communications which you may perhaps make to
me should occasion offer— I would not sollicit any anticipation of your confidence,
because confidence ought always to be free and voluntary— But whenever you shall think
the occasion sufficient, you will find on my part, not only the feelings of a brother,
but all the sympathies of the most cordial and affectionate friendship.

With them, I remain, ever your’s

A. 9

Quincy 25. January.

I have kept the within letter untill this time, for the sake of
bringing it out here, and now find little or nothing to say in addition, excepting that our parents and friends here are
well.— Boylston Adams was married last week— 10 And by the way, speaking of marriages, by the
natural transition from cause to effect, I may tell you, that our friend Quincy has a
son—born about ten days ago— 11 By way
of encouragement to you, and to confirm and establish your tottering virtue of patience , I shall add that after a month’s experience in my
office, I find no interruption whatsoever to my learned leisure; , Start deletion, and find , End, no perplexing calls for the obliterated
black-letter lore. N’importe — I have succeeded in filling
my whole time with employment , that I find none for
fretting, and never in my whole life felt more ease and contentment—

N. B. Please to call upon M r: Ustick.
N. 79. North 3 d: Street, and pay him for a sett of
Moshein’s Ecclesiastical History which he sent your father—let me know the amount, and
charge it to my account. 12

J. Q. A. 13