he has as I think Thrust himself Rudely under your Protection I however thank you for your Notice of him & hope he will so Behave as to obtain yr future Aprobation I know your Wisdom and Goodnes will Incline you to watch over and Admonish, or Reprove Him, as you find occasion, and if you can make him Ashamed of that Ridiculous Vanety he so much Indulges, an convert him from it, you may by that means save a soul from Death and hide a multitude of Sins.
I dont wish him to know I sent you his Leter and if you have a convenant opertunity Pleas to send it back again.
all my famely Joyn in the most
Dutifull & Affectionat Respects to you and yours with your Sister
JANE MECOM
I beleve I have wrote too sevre to Poor Josiah & as he is among all Strangers & so much his Superours it may Depres his Spirits & I Realy think him a good young man in the main I know no fault he has but his Vanety, you will know whither he wants Encourigement & your Goodnes will Adminester it in the Properest way I should be sorry to have him take a Disgust at his old Grandmother & I must send these or none as the Vesel is Just going
[In the margin] you kno I have sent you his charecter some time ago
[Printed first, and hitherto only, in Duane, Letters to Benjamin Franklin, pp. 142-144, and now printed from the manuscript in the American Philosophical Society. The original is not dated, and the conjectured date "Between May & July 1786?" is in another hand. The date is certainly May of that year, for it acknowledges the receipt of the books Franklin had sent on April 25, and it is referred to by Franklin in his letter of June 3. The "young Niece in particular that made me such a Present" was Elizabeth Franklin Bache, then eight years old. The "Profile" from the Benjamin Vaughan collection which Jane Mecom thought so good a likeness of her brother is reproduced in this volume. It seems impossible to identify the particular Cutting who carried this letter.]
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: The Letters of Benjamin Franklin & Jane Mecom.
Contributors: Carl Van Doren - Editor, Benjamin Franklin - Author, Jane Mecom - Author.
Publisher: Princeton University Press.
Place of publication: Princeton, NJ.
Publication year: 1950.
Page number: 266.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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