Caleb Evans, Bristol, to Mary Steele, Broughton, [Sunday] 10 September 1786.

   Tho’ I have nothing to say to my very Dear and Hon.d Friend that is at all worth her hearing, nor time to say it if I had; yet I know not how to let the opportunity that offers slip, without sending some slight memorial of my regard for a frd whose interests seem dearer to me than ever, & in whose sorrows I feel a kind of happin:s in taking a part.

   I frequently enquire after you all, & by one means or other frequently hear of you; sometimes the intelligence brightens our hopes, too often overclouds us with fears & anxieties.  One thing we may surely learn from all, & is a lesson which plain it is we seem very loth to learn, that this is not our rest.  No, tho’ there is a sense in which virtue has even in this life it’s own reward, yet too true it is that in many instances our very virtue itself is a source of torment, & to abate our misery we had need to blunt the edge of our virtue could this be the case under the governm.t of a wise and good Being, were there no future state? Surely it could not.  Nor can any thing perhaps ne.r strongly point out an hereafter & intimate etern:y to man next to the expr:s voice of revelation itself,  than the pangs of Suffer:g virtue.  Can we suppose the virtuous attachm:t of a virtuous child say, to a virtuous good parent, & that from a discernment of love of his virtues, can be criminal? And if not criminal, can it be punishable?  And wd it not be punish’d by the anguish necessarily arising from a separat:n by death, had we no prospect of a future state? – “When such frds part tis the Survivor dies” – And would this be right, were there no after state?  But if there be – what can be m.r proper? What can more effectually loosen from the present state; what more strongly attach to ye future? And under these feelings, sitting at the feet of Jes:s, how delightful to hear him saying – In my Fath.s House are many Mans:s, if it were not so I sd h.v told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And with what secret ardor do we spring forward to the blissful hour of mutual congratulation when the virtuous shall all flock together from the four winds & wth their gr.t High Priest at their head be present’d to the Father – a glor:s Church with.t Spot or wrinkle or any such thing.  What a vast idea, & how unutterably blissful will it be to realize it!  Pardon me – this is noth.g but w.t you knew before, & can infin:y better describe [than I  am] able to do, & form m.r vivid [concepts] of [paper torn]

   I enclose you an Essay on Poetry, just appear’d in our papers, wch I want y.r opinion of, & must beg you to return.  I have no other copy of it.

   Of our friend who brings this I wish rather to say nothing, & yet I cann.t help in justice saying this, that were those who are prejudic’d against him to converse more wth him, their prejudices would wear off, as mine have done, & their admiration & esteem wd increase.  “Take him all in all, I ne’er sh.ll see his like again.”

   Remem.r me most affec.y to the whole circle,  & with every sympathetic feeling believe me ever

                     Y.r faithf.l  & affec.t frd  

                                                         C E

P.S. My wife & dau.r unite in every affec.t salutation.

Brist.l  Sep:r 10. 1786.

P.S. You’ll be kind enough to pay, as us:l, 2 Guin:s to Lockerly, & 2 Guin:s to Mr Cole – I have credited you & Mrs Steele with yr Subs. to ye Educ: Socy in ye stead of it.[vi]

Text: STE 5/16/ix, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. No postmark. Address:  Miss Steele / Broughton / favored by Mess. Newton & Hall.  The two messsengers are Robert Hall and his colleague at the Baptist Academy, the Revd James Newton (1733-1790). Caleb and Hugh Evans founded the Bristol Education Society in 1770; William Steele IV attended the inaugural meeting.. Thomas Mullett was one of the original members of the society and served as its first secretary from 1770 to 1778; Thomas Dunscombe (1748-1811), who would marry Mary Steele in 1797, was one of the early students at Bristol Baptist Academy. See Account of the Bristol Education Society, pp. 20, 24, 26.