“Old Bill” Suggests—

Among all the thistles and cockleburs sowed by Aaron Burr, there was one lovely rose—his daughter. Theodosia Burr was one of the outstanding women of her time, brilliant and lovely, a successful wife and mother whose mind turned to Plutarch, Herodotus, Gibbon and Plautus for “light reading” and a stanch fighter who stood fearlessly by her father in his trial and disgrace.

Upon her training, he lavished a steady energy and a philosophic balance too often lacking in his other enterprises. He wrote to her in school days:

“Negligence of one’s duty produces a self-dissatisfaction which unfits the mind for everything, and ennui and peevishness are the never-failing consequences. You will readily discover the truth of these remarks by reflecting on your own conduct, and the different feelings which have flowed from a persevering attention to study or a restless neglect of it.”

Comment on that would be gilding the lily.

ROYAL F. MUNGER.