September

September 1 "The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly (with your God). This is enough."

John Adams, 2nd President, 1797-1801 From a letter to his grand daughter, Caroline Abigail Smith de Wendt on January 24, 1820. The letter speaks specifically to a vaccine and scientific advancement. The context of the letter appears to answer the question of why we, as humans, know so little and are slow to make discoveries and improvements. Ever the Puritan from Massachusetts, Adams ends with: "Worm! Ask no such questions!...This is enough for you to know and do. The world is a better one than you deserve; strive to make yourself more worthy of it." In closing, he softens the message: "So questions, and so answers your affectionate grandfather, John Adams" ; Journal and Correspondence of Miss Adams, Daughter of John Adams,Edited by her daughter, Wiley and Putnam, New York and London, 1841. John Adams and Abigail Smith Adams had five children- three boys and two girls. Their eldest daughter, Abigail, married William Stephens Smith and Caroline was their youngest daughter. She would have been about twenty five years old at the time the letter was written to her.