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11 - Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings by John Quincy Adams · Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings

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  Speaker 1: Section ten of Letters of John Quincy Adams to his
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  Speaker 1: son on the Bible and its teachings. This LibriVox recording
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  Speaker 1: is in the public domain, read by Dale Barklay. In
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  Speaker 1: eighteen forty, mister Morgan, the present Secretary of State of
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  Speaker 1: New York, occupied a seat in Congress next to that
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  Speaker 1: of mister Adams. Several young ladies in mister Ogle's district
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  Speaker 1: had requested mister adams autograph. In complying with that request,
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  Speaker 1: mister Adams added the following poem, a copy of which
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  Speaker 1: mister Morgan obtained. Mister Adams, be it remembered, when this
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  Speaker 1: spirited poem was written, had attained his seventy fourth year.
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  Speaker 1: The wants of Man by John Quincy Adams. Man wants
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  Speaker 1: but little here below, nor wants that little long Goldsmith's
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  Speaker 1: hermit man wants but little here below, nor wants that
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  Speaker 1: little long tis not with me exactly so, but tis
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  Speaker 1: so in the song. My wants are many, and if told,
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  Speaker 1: would muster many a score, And where each wish a
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  Speaker 1: mint of gold, I still should long for more. What
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  Speaker 1: first I want is daily bread and canvas, backs and wine,
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  Speaker 1: and all the realms of nature spread before me. When
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  Speaker 1: I dine four courses scarcely can provide my appetite to
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  Speaker 1: quell with four choice cooks from France, beside to dress
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  Speaker 1: my dinner well. What next I want at heavy cost
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  Speaker 1: is elegant attire, black sable furs for winter's frost, and
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  Speaker 1: silks for summer's fire, and cashmere shawls and brussels lace
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  Speaker 1: my bosoms front to deck, and diamond rings my hands
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  Speaker 1: to grace, and rubies for my neck. And then I
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  Speaker 1: want a mansion fair a dwelling house and style four
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  Speaker 1: stories high for wholesome air, a massive marble pile with
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  Speaker 1: hauls for banquets and for balls, all furnished rich and fine,
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  Speaker 1: with stabled studs and fifty stalls and cellars for my wine.
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  Speaker 1: I want to garden and a park my dwelling to
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  Speaker 1: surround a thousand acres bless the mark with walls and
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  Speaker 1: compassed round, where flocks may range and herds may low,
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  Speaker 1: and kids and lambkins play, and flowers and fruits commingled
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  Speaker 1: grow all eden to display. I want when summer's foliage
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  Speaker 1: falls and autumn strips the trees, a house within the
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  Speaker 1: city's walls for comfort and for ease. But here as
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  Speaker 1: space is somewhat scant an acres rather rare my house
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  Speaker 1: in town, I only want to occupy a square. I
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  Speaker 1: want a steward, butler, cooks, a coachman, footman, grooms, a
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  Speaker 1: library of well bound books and picture garnished rooms, Correggio's
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  Speaker 1: Magdalen and Knight, the matron of the chair, guidos, fleet
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  Speaker 1: courses in their flight, and cloudies at least a pair.
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  Speaker 1: I want a cabinet profuse of metals, coins and gems,
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  Speaker 1: a printing press for private use of fifty thousand ems,
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  Speaker 1: and plants and minerals, and shells, worms inside, fishes, birds,
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  Speaker 1: and every beast on earth that dwells in solitude or herds.
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  Speaker 1: I want a board of burnished plate of silver and
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  Speaker 1: of gold tureens of twenty pounds in weight, with sculpture's
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  Speaker 1: richest mold plateaus with chandeliers and lamps, plates, dishes all
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  Speaker 1: the same, and porcelain vases with the stamps of Sever's
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  Speaker 1: Angolames and maples of fair glossy stain must form my
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  Speaker 1: chamber doors and carpets of the Wilton grain must cover
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  Speaker 1: all my floors, my walls with tapestry bedecked must never
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  Speaker 1: be outdone and damass. Curtains must protect their colors from
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  Speaker 1: the sun, and mirrors of the largest pane from venice
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  Speaker 1: must be brought, and sandalwood and bamboo cane for chairs
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  Speaker 1: and tables bought. On all the mantelpieces, clocks of thrice,
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  Speaker 1: gilt bronze must stand, and screens of ebony and box
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  Speaker 1: invite the stranger's hand. I want, who does not want
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  Speaker 1: a wife affectionate and fair, to solo all the woes
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  Speaker 1: of life and all its joys, to share of temper, sweet,
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  Speaker 1: of yielding will, of firm yet placid mind, with all
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  Speaker 1: my faults, to love me still with sentiment refined, and
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  Speaker 1: as time's car incessant runs and fortune fills my store.
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  Speaker 1: I want of daughters and of sons, from eight to
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  Speaker 1: half a score. I want, alas can mortal dare such
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  Speaker 1: bliss on earth, to crave that all the girls be
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  Speaker 1: chaste and fair, the boys all wise and brave. And
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  Speaker 1: when my bosom's darling sings with melody divine, a petal
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  Speaker 1: harp of many strings must, with her voice combine a
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  Speaker 1: piano exquisitively wrought must open stand apart that all my
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  Speaker 1: daughters may be taught to win the stranger's heart. My
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  Speaker 1: wife and daughters will desire refreshment from perfumes, cosmetic for
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  Speaker 1: the skin, require and artificial blooms. The civet fragrance shall dispense,
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  Speaker 1: and treasured sweets return cologne, revive the flagging sense in
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  Speaker 1: smoking amber. And when at night my weary head begins
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  Speaker 1: to droop and doze, A southern chamber holds my bed
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  Speaker 1: for nature's soft repose, with blankets, counterpanes and sheet mattress,
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  Speaker 1: and bed of down, and comfortables for my feet, and
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  Speaker 1: pillows for my crown. I want a warm and faithful
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  Speaker 1: friend to cheer the adverse hour, who ne'er to flatter,
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  Speaker 1: will dissent, nor bend the knee to power. A friend
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  Speaker 1: to chide me when I'm wrong, My inmost soul to
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  Speaker 1: see and that my friendship proves as strong for him
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  Speaker 1: as his for me. I want a kind and tender
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  Speaker 1: heart for others. Wants to feel a soul secure from
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  Speaker 1: fortune's dart and bosom, armed with steel to bear divine chastisements,
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  Speaker 1: rod and mingling in my plan, submission to the will
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  Speaker 1: of God with charity to man. I want a keen
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  Speaker 1: observing eye, an ever listening, ear the truth through all disguise,
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  Speaker 1: to spy, and wisdom's voice to hear, a tongue to
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  Speaker 1: speak at virtue's need in Heaven's sublimesay strain and lips
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  Speaker 1: the cause of man to plead and never plead in vain.
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  Speaker 1: I want uninterrupted health throughout my long career, and streams
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  Speaker 1: of never failing wealth to scatter far and near the destitute,
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  Speaker 1: to clothe and feed free bounty, to bestow, supply the
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  Speaker 1: helpless orphan's need, and soothe the widow's woe. I want
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  Speaker 1: the genius to conceive the talents to unfold designs, the
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  Speaker 1: vicious to retrieve the virtuous, to uphold inventive power, combining
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  Speaker 1: skill a persevering soul of human hearts to mold the
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  Speaker 1: will and reach from pole to pole. I want the
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  Speaker 1: seals of power and place, the ensigns of command, charged
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  Speaker 1: by the people's unbought grace to rule my native land.
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  Speaker 1: Nor crown nor scepter would I ask but from my
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  Speaker 1: country's will, by day by night, to ply the task
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  Speaker 1: her cup of bliss to fill. I want the voice
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  Speaker 1: of honest praise to follow me behind and to be
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  Speaker 1: thought in future days, the friend of human kind that
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  Speaker 1: after ages, as they rise exulting, may proclaim in choral
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  Speaker 1: union to the skies their blessings on my name. These
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  Speaker 1: are the wants of mortal man. I cannot want them long,
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  Speaker 1: for life itself is but a span and earthly bliss,
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  Speaker 1: a song. My last great want, absorbing all is when
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  Speaker 1: beneath the sod, and summoned to my final call, the
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  Speaker 1: mercy of my God. And oh while circles in my
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  Speaker 1: veins of life, the purple stream, and yet a fragment
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  Speaker 1: small remains of nature's transient dream. My soul in humble hope, unscarred.
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  Speaker 1: Forget not thou to pray that this thy want may
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  Speaker 1: be prepared to meet the judgment day. Thee end end
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  Speaker 1: of section ten. End of Letters of John Quincy Adams
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  Speaker 1: to his son on the Bible and of his Teachings
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  Speaker 1: by John Quincy Adams