Letter from John Allan to Edgar Allan Poe

John Allan

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Sir

your letter of Monday was received this morning, I am not at all surprized at any step you may take, at any thing you can say, or any thing you may do, you are a much better judge of the propriety of your own conduct and general treatment of those who [ have] had the charge of your infancy I have watched with parental solicitude & affection over your tender years affording you such means of instruction as was in their power & which was performed with pleasure until you became a much better judge of your own conduct, rights & priviledges, than they, it is true: I taught you to aspire, even to eminence in Public Life, but I never expected that Don Quixotte. Gil Blas: Jo; Miller & such works were calculated to promote the end

It is true and you will not deny it, that the charge of eating the Bread of idleness, was to urge you to perseverance & industry in receiving the classics, in perfecting yourself in the mathematics, mastering the French [unclear: &c.. &c..] how far I succeeded in this you can best tell, but for one who had conceived so good an opinion of himself, this future instruction I hesitate not to say, that you have not evinced the smallest disposition to comply with my wishes, it is only on this subject I wish to be understood. your Heart will tell you if it is not made of Marble whether I have not had good reason to fear for you, in more ways than one. I should have been justly chargeable, in reprimanding you for faults had I had any other object than to correct them

your list of grievances require no answer the world will reply to them — & now that you have shaken off your dependance & [unclear: declared] for your own Independance — & after such a list of Black charges — you Tremble for the consequences unless I send you a supply of money