Lydia Rotch Dean letter to Thomas Rotch, New Bedford, 2nd mo 23rd, 1808

              B-43-3
page 1`

                                    New Bedford 2nd mo 23 1808
My dear Brother
                              Altho' our anxiety is much reliev'd at present from the various favorable accts thou hast kindly forwarded respecting my dear Sister, the reduction having been great we cannot but feel much solicitude but some trifling exertion should produce a painful relapse into new sufferings & all our fond hopes become necessarily exchanged for sorrowful fears- But perhaps I do wrong to suggest such an event which no doubt thy own prudence hath sufficiently admitted the possibility of to operate as a guard against disappointment & the presentation that this medium may add a degree of discouragement, which however I would by no means administer, even by producing a single thought of such a tendency. Much more congenial to my feelings would be a consciousness of ability thro' the agency of