The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

PART I.] PRIVATE LETTERS. 371
ed on all hands, and that an alliance with your family
will be pleasing to his.
This acknowledgment being made, you must permit me
to add, Sir, that at this, or in any short time, his youth,
inexperience, and unripened education, are, and will be,
insuperable obstacles, in my opinion, to the completion of
the marriage. As his guardian, I conceive it my indispensable duty to endeavour to carry him through a
regular course of education (many branches of which, I
am sorry to add, he is totally deficient in), and to guard
his youth to a more advanced age before an event, on
which his own peace and the happiness of another are
to depend, takes place. Not that I have any doubt of
the warmth of his affections, nor, I hope I may add, any
fears of a change in them; but at present I do not conceive that he is capable of bestowing that attention
to the important consequences of the married state, which
is necessary to be given by those, who are about to enter
into it, and of course I am unwilling he should do it till
he is. If the affection, which they have avowed for
each other, is fixed upon a solid basis, it will receive no
diminution in the course of two or three years, in which
time he may prosecute his studies, and thereby render
himself more deserving of the lady and useful to society.
If, unfortunately, as they are both young, there should be
an abatement of affection on either side, or both, it had
better precede than follow marriage.
Delivering my sentiments thus freely will not, I hope,
lead you into a belief, that I am desirous of breaking off
the match. To postpone it is all I have in view; for I
shall recommend to the young gentleman, with the
warmth that becomes a man of honor, (notwithstanding
he did not vouchsafe to consult either his mother or me
on the occasion,) to consider himself as much engaged
to your daughter, as if the indissoluble knot were tied;