which, I trust, mutually link our hearts together now, and will continue so to do, till we meet in that more perfect, and, as my uncle Moses terms it, that inseparable and immutable state, where all imperfections will be done away, and every impediment to a more intimate intercourse be removed. Hopes and views of this sort are most reviving cordials to a mind laboring under the pressure either of public or private afflictions, and Providence has been pleased to afford me an opportunity of proving them to be so by my own experience in both.
The private affliction, named in my letter to my uncle Moses, is one in which you will both be no small sharers; which, though in truth very deep, is far from incurable, as the same Hand that gave it has graciously furnished means of cure, and poured healing balsam into the wound.
As to the other kind of afflictions, they are still incumbent, and when they will be removed, God only knows. I hope I am resigned to the will of the great arbiter of all things, yet I cannot remain an unconcerned spectator of the calamities of my country. But, lest you should suspect me of being uneasy without just reason, I shall give you as just and succinct an account as I can of the present state of affairs in this once flourishing and happy colony.
You may remember, I told you last year, the drought had been of long continuance and threatened famine; but the wise and gracious Disposer of all things, who, in the midst of judgment remembers mercy, mitigated things so far as to afford a sufficiency of bread for the life of man, but, in general, very little more, so that vast numbers of stock, of all kinds, perished, notwithstanding the uncommon clemency of last winter. Taxes on taxes are multiplied, and, though it be a necessary, it is a heavy burden.
