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dec 1 1782

My dear Sister

a Pacquet so enriched with Music & Poetry deserved I confess a much earlier acknowledgement - but many Burthens both mental & corporeal rendered me unable to thank you so expeditiously as I wished to do - new Tumors succeeded each other on my Neck & presented me with a new Key to the Riddle of the Hydra I am now satisfied the Fable means nothing more than that poor Hercules was tormented with Boils – But He was a Friend & Companion to Bacchus & so had a Title to them - but why do they visit me an honest Water-drinker & no more like Hercules than a Mouse is like a Rhinoceros – They come says my Surgeon who loved Port & Strong-Beer because you drink Water - They come says my Physician who lives on a vegetable diet because you eat animal Food – Heaven bless the good Folks of the Faculty I love many of them but I can more easily swallow their Physic than their Arguments - But enough of medical matters I