Quincy, May 12, 1818.

DEAR SIR,

IN my letters to you, I regard no order. And I think, I ought to make you laugh sometimes: otherwise my letters would be too grave, if not too melancholy. To this end, I send you Jemmibellero, "the song of the drunkard" which was published in Fleet's "Boston Evening Post," on the 13th of May, 1765. It was universally agreed to have been written by Samuel Waterhouse, who had been the most notorious scribbler, satyrist and libeller, in the service of the conspirators, against the liberties of America, and against the administration of governor Pownal, and against the characters of Mr. Pratt and Mr. Tyng. The rascal had wit. But is ridicule the test of truth? You see the bachanalian ha! ha! at Otis's prosodies Greek and Latin; and you see the encouragement of scholarship in that age. The whole legion, the whole phalanx, the whole host of conspirators against the liberties of America, could not have produced Mr. Otis's Greek and Latin prosodies. Yet they must be made the scorn of fools. Such was the character of the age, or rather of the day. Such have been and such will be the rewards of real patriotism in all ages and all over the world.—I am, as ever, your old friend and humble servant,

JOHN ADAMS.