An instance of the friendships Nathan made in
New Haven is shown by the words of ^Eneas
Munson, M.D., formerly of that city. When an
aged man he spoke in the warmest terms of Hale's
fine qualities as he observed them when he was a
boy in his father's house, and he treasured a letter
to his father from Hale in 1774 which will be given
farther on.

Of home letters, happily a few from their father
in Coventry to his two sons in college are still
preserved; these prove, as no words of any stranger
could, his constant and practical interest in all
that concerned them. They show us how an
upright father tried to influence his boys' religious
characters while distant from them, and at the same
time they show the economies which even well-to-do
fathers then had to exercise in providing for
their sons while at college. The first letter also
shows that Nathan must have entered college
when fourteen years and three months old, having
been born in June, 1755, and entering college in
September, 1769. We here give the first letter,
with all its quaint old spelling, and after it two
others written during successive years. We may
smile at their old-time expressions, but we must
own to a sincere admiration for the kind and
thoughtful father, so interested in his boys, and

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v?