Newberry Library - Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, to Joseph M. Metcalf (brother), Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1844-1850

Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, to Joseph M. Metcalf (brother), Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1844-1850

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Open book Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, to Joseph M. Metcalf (brother), Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1844-1850

Title Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, to Joseph M. Metcalf (brother), Isaac Stevens Metcalf family papers, 1844-1850

Creator Metcalf, Isaac Stevens, 1822-1898

Date 1844-1850

Place United States

Subjects Bowdoin College, Brothers and sisters, DuQuoin Coal Company, Illinois Central Railroad Company

Format Business records, Correspondence, Diaries, Genealogies, Invoices, Manuscripts, Personal narratives, Records

User-Contributed Transcription either lately, I cannot well say. At any rate, I have come to the conclusion that you are a "thinking Man". Now I have quite a large acquaintance among young men, many of them men of Education, of refined, cultivated, and well disciplined minds, so called; but it does not ?page folded over occur to me that I would be willing to warrant any one of them really thinking as much in one week as you do in one day. And as for myself, who from advantages of education, extensive & varied reading, in several respects, fair opportunities: might reasonably be expected, a fair "?page folded over for comparison, I hope no reason for judging that I think as normal in one month, or have day in the month last past, as you appear to one hour: that is, when the thinking mood comes over you.Now I think of it, there is in your letter, if I can find it, a passage my mental indolence. I do most fully, and most heartily confess the charge. It is a thing which has troubled me a good deal. It is a matter upon which I have really thought, or tried, or pretended, to think, more or less, occasionally. I have tried to imagine a cause, or a reason. I have been half flattering myself with the idea that perhaps as I had been for three or four years mostly occupied intellectually rather than physically, it was sometimes natural, if not reasonable, that the Mind should claim a space of rest, of relaxation from constant exertion. But I do not know as the flimsy defense would stand against your argument and theory. Still some things my experience would appear to confirm such an idea, I mean an idea that the mind may gain strength and ability for exertion from inactivity. E.g. you and I both when very young in Boston were precocious, prematurely scholars & readers. Now do you believe that if we had remained there under similar circumstances that should have ever matured into sound minds, eve as we now are? Was not the perfect change, relaxation, in fact the full giving up of that usually called Mental Culture, was it not necessary to further health development? I was not probably as good a scholar when I first went to Bangor to School

Transcription Status Needs review

Transcription Note This document was transcribed by volunteers as part of the Newberry Transcribe crowdsourcing initiative.

Archival Collection Title Isaac Stevens Metcalf papers, Midwest Manuscript Collection

Link to Catalog View finding aid | View record

Call Number Midwest MS Metcalf Box 7 Folder 193

BibID 821787

Rights Status No Copyright - United States

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 3102px × 3994px 70.93 MB

Filename 998217878805867_mms_metcalf_box_07_fl_193_002_002.tif

Unique Identifier NL11FK6E

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