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so fast that I must say no more on this agreeable head , tho * I have iafelihati < Srr to run my paper out in ' t , but have divers more things to add ; so , for once , the snperiour must give way to the inferiour . As to t ; he language , f am an entire stranger to if : ^ s yet ; and it makers me
at times , melancholy to the last degree , to hear people talk , and understand nothing of if \ for they all appear to me like the figures in the tapestry-hangings . If I learn , it ^ riiust be by hearing ; for they tell me there is ' no rule to teach it ; so I mu-st coine at the knowledge of it T * € py painfully , if ever I attain it . People have been here 5 years before they could
speak it . Young folks and children take it very soon , as they do other things ; but l ^ n afraid the old proverb will be ' -verified in me , viz ., that old dogs will leaim elo tricks . I would not lose rny English neither , as , desirous , as I am to uoderstaad the Swedes , to share in their conversation ., 3 $ wel ) as to know the language to instruct nty young ones ; Low t shall do tliat without it , is past . say coinpFebension ,. as well as that of my friends in England ; bat , perhaps , as you Say , I may do it some other way * I shall go to Mr . Campbell ' s in a fortnight ; by that time Mrs . Campbell wili be returned out of the country , and got ks . to the new house , I shall then have beerj , hetfe 14 weeks * Th « e weather has been so exm mely hot for these < two months , fcnd it . is stitt , that every one here , as well as the masters of ships , that have used the hottest voyages iri
other parts , say they never felt any thing like it : You may judge how it fared with me , that was the most uneasy creature in a hot day in England , which is . but like a winter day to these . Tk always very hot here but their evenings used to be cool , but now all has been alike . The woods have been on frfe several times with the heat . I have not slept two hours in a night for a , lonSg time ; my blood boiTd to that degree that I had bunops in my hands , w itr * blisters at the top , and a thousand , small purple spots about me , but more in rny hands , ( F don ' t hear of any beipg so but children , ) and such an uneasiness all over me ^ tbat 1 cou'd neither &it nor stand , nor lie long together . And our river was so foggy , and reckon ed so unwholesome , that the -Swedes said it Was just so before the plague was h , ere last . I heard the English talk of getting tar , tobacpo * && . as antitjotes against
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it ; and removing into the country to fly from it . I was as Belshazzar was at the hand "writing ; for t concluded that I was to die in a day or two , and how unhappy my case was , to come here in a strange country * to die of such a contagious distemper ! But it pleas ed God
when my terrours were at the height , to send violent rains and thunder , which soon dissipated thdse fogs , and refreshed the earth > Then I took some salt I brought over with me , which was of vast service to me , and my bumps and spots disappeared . I ' ve heard often of the cold , but never of the heat ; so it sur *
priced me the more . The climate jV very irregular , and will try rny constitution to a great degree . Many people have had agues at this time . Some days , they tell me , theFe is exceeding heat in the forenoon , and snow , &c . in the afternoon , and yet this- climate is- reck «
otied wholesome * - the English say better ? than England—that is * the gentle ^ men ^ b ' ut the wooden are weak . I con * , fess it is pa-st my comprehension . Thank God ,, I am indifferent well now ; tho' it is hot still , but nothing to what it has been . I suppose the cold will he as terrible to me . I intend to endeavour to
fallow your prescription .. Coffee I ' ve begwa with , but can ' t relish itr , tho * made in perfection here ; and the other liquor I shall attempt sqdn , and doubt not of the desired eCect ; wherx so . delightful a . cordial is mixt with / it as you . mention ., it will give it a : most charming flavour aiKl z . est , however disagreeable
it was belore . Fear is a great vice ia m « , and a very predominant passioaR and if this > liquor will lay that , or reduce it so as to raakie it manageable , it will do more than all my reason ever cpu'd do , because I always thought I had reason for it : but the mferiour
reason always ^ vas prevalent , so unhappy a compound I am : ipr this I may thank Adam , as Milton says , all his posterity will say . , 1 have one of his devil ' s sayings often in my head since I ' ve been at Stockholm— -Is this the place the conqueror has given ? and this the place that I have chanef d for Heaven !—Then I entertain myself with the prospects in .
dear England in imagination , and see it in spirit , tho' not with my ' bodily , ey . . O ! dear Mr . Say , how eager was I to be at the meeting you proposed : you talk'd of appointing the , time , and the . place , and never did ft ; I wish my evil genius . ba $ B-o $ trpwbled you ever since ,
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48 % The Say Papers *—Original Letter of Mrs . M . Sheppard ' s .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1809, page 482, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1740/page/8/
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