Charity Rotch letter to unknown friend, Scituate, 9th mo 11, 1801

              B-226-2 
	  
	  			Scitriate  9th mo 11th 1801
	     Thy letter my esteemed frd was too acceptable to
	  lay by one long unanswered; or unacknowledged- the
	  tender interest, thou hast ever taken in my welfare since
	  we became acquainted; claims my love & gratitude
	  as thy due  - thy remarks I think very just & hope
	  will have proper weight with me- as there is nothing I more
	  desire than to pass every day as tho it were my last
          for me thinks there can be no greater consolation at
	  that awfull period, when we shall be called to resign our
	  being, than to look back on a well spent life.  The
	  reflection is seldom long absent from my memory, the
	  Shortness of human life & the much we have to do in it.
	  that we may look up with confidence to the Father [illegible]
	  with humble hope of a more glorious inheritance
	  yet so frail is thy frd- having so much of untempered
	  clay about one; as to doubt whether this happy assurance
	  will ever be mine- aware that no beginning will avail
	  as it is the end we must look too- to the grand result.
	     The curtains fall   to know how far we are approved-
	  and is it not stranger! that people of Sense being endow d
	  with reason should forget they are mortal even the aged
	  should be planning scheemes of future emolument