Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/376

lin after the peace, and the latter writes him from Passy, 27 Janu- ary, I783. 6 I received and read the letter you were so kind as to write me on 3rd instant, with a great deal of pleasure, as it informed me of the welfare of a family, whom I have so long esteemed and loved, and to whom I am under so many obligations, which I shall ever remember. Our correspon- dence [has been interrupted by that abominable war. I neither expected letters from you, nor would I hazard putting you in danger by writing any to you. * * * Mrs. Sargent and the good lady, her Mother, are very kind in wishing me more happy years. I ought to be satisfied with those Provi- dence has already been pleased to afford me, being now in my seventy- eighth ; a long life to pass without any uncommon misfortune, the greater part of it in health and vigor of mind and body, near fifty years of it in continued possession of the confidence of my country, in public employ- ments, and enjoying the esteem and affectionate, friendly regard of many wise and good men and women, in every country where I have resided. For these mercies and blessings, I desire to be thankful to God, whose protection I have hitherto had, and I hope for its continuance to the end, which cannot be far distant This letter contains one of those quaint phrases which so often find their way into Franklin's correspondence : The account you give me of your family is pleasing, except that your eldest son continues so long unmarried. I hope he does not intend to live and die in celibacy. The wheel of life, that has rolled down to him from Adam without interruption, should not stop with him. I would not have one dead, unbearing branch in the genealogical tree of the Sargents. 7 land, and from 1754 to 1761, Member of Parliament for Midhurst, and 1765-8, M. P. for West Looe, Cornwall. He first possessed the mansion of May Place in Kent and afterwards purchased Halstead Place. He died at Tunbridge Wells, 20 Septem- ber, 1791. His son John was the author of the Mine and other Poems; in 1790 he was M. P. for Seaford, in 1793 for Queensborough, and after parliamentary service he accepted the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds in 1806, and died in 1831. His eldest son, also John, born in 1781, was fellow of King's College, Cambridge, obtained orders and was presented by his father to the livings of Graffham in 1805 and Woollavington, 1813, where he died 3 May, 1833. One of the latter's daughters married Samuel Wilberforce, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, and another Henry Man- ning, who succeeded him in the living of Woollavington and afterwards became Car- dinal Manning. Gentleman's Magazine, 1833. Supplement, i. 636, also Hansard and Allibone for the last two Sargents. 6 Bigelow, viii. 256. 7 and he continues : " The married state is, after all our jokes, the happiest, being conformable to our natures. Man and woman have each of them qualities and tempers, in which the other is deficient, and which in union contribute to the common felicity. Single and separate, they are not the complete human being ; they are like the odd halves of scissors: they cannot answer the end of their formation."