#timothy dwight

[daisy-rivers]

Did I tell their story?

Nearly five years ago, unable to find a good long Peggy and Lafayette love story in the world of Hamilton fanfiction, I set out to write one myself. As of today, that story has taken eight works and just under a million words to complete. The series is “The Revolution’s Happening” on AO3. Chronologically, it begins with I Like You a Lot, centered around Alex and John, but the first part I wrote was Provoke Outrage, which is Peggy and Gil’s love story. Along the way, I made connections with Turn and The Scarlet Pimpernel and brought in a lot of historical characters that don’t appear in LMM’s musical, like Francis Marion, Sybil Ludington, and Daniel Phoenix, as well as a handful of (mostly minor) original characters. The story grew to just under a million words, and now it’s done.

If you know it at all, you know that the pivotal event was based on the true story of Peggy rescuing her baby sister (or possibly niece, the accounts vary) when a mob invaded the Schuyler family’s home in Albany. There’s still a gouge in the stair railing that is said to be from an ax that one of the home invaders threw at Peggy as she ran up the stairs. In my story, she grabs her baby sister Katie and runs out of the house when the evil police of President King’s administration arrest her parents, and, much later, Peggy and Gil legally adopt Katie and raise her.

That was where I started, so it only seemed fitting to end the story, which covers more than twenty years, with the wedding of the now-grown Katie. A full account of the wedding is in Chapter 42 of the final work, More of Us. Here are some wedding pictures for you.

The wedding takes place in historic Old Christ Church in Philadelphia.

The Reverend Timothy Dwight, military chaplain and family friend, officiates at the ceremony.

Margarita, the Marquise de Lafayette, mother of the bride.

Dr. Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, father of the bride.

Ms. Martha Manning Félice, mother of the groom.

Professor Daniel Félice, father of the groom.

Ms. Elizabeth Hale, grandmother of the groom.

Miss Katherine Louise Schuyler Motier, the bride.

Mr. Gabriel Nathan Félice, the groom.

Miss Mary Eleanor Laurens-Schuyler, the maid of honor

Mr. Jeff Eston, the best man.

Miss Schuyler Margaret Motier, the flower girl.

And they lived happily ever after.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Secret Things Belong to God

by Timothy Dwight

"The secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" - Deuteronomy 29:29

The means or measures which God is pleased to adopt for the accomplishment of his purposes are always the wisest and best means; and such, if heartily pursued by us, will prove to be efficacious in the most perfect manner. The means which he has adopted in the present case are to withhold some things and to reveal others. The things withheld are all withheld by design and in accordance with the dictates of infinite wisdom and goodness. The things revealed were revealed with the same design and with the same infinite wisdom and goodness.

Every truth or doctrine we know is attended or followed by many others connected with it, each with more or less clearness or obscurity. Each of these is attended or followed by many others; and thus the doctrines are multiplied to a degree which cannot be measured--faster than those which we have already known.

Our faculties, we know, never expand beyond a certain limit. They differ to some degree in different men. But still, in all men there is a bound which none can pass. Yet the things to be known are literally without number or degree. And the things whose existence we are able to perceive and whose nature, relations, and dependencies we yet cannot understand, soon multiply and extend so as to bear no perceivable proportion to the extent of our capacity. Hence all men of enlarged science agree in declaring that the utmost increase of human knowledge amounts to little more than to know how few things can be known by us.

From these observations it is evident that a Revelation made to mankind must, in order to be useful to them, be proportioned in the number and nature of things disclosed to the human capacity--such things, and such only, as are fitted to employ and enlighten their understandings, influence their affections, and direct their conduct in the happiest manner. It ought also to communicate such things only as will be useful to us--such as will promote our real interests, and not such as would awaken or gratify that idle and restless curiosity that is ever wandering in search of pleasure and ever uninterested in the attainment of real good.

In a Revelation there are many subjects whose nature and extent must of necessity surpass the understanding not only of man but of every finite being. Such, for example, are the character and pleasures of God. But as these are in their nature and extent infinite, they can evidently be comprehended only by the infinite mind. Yet of these subjects even we can know something, and it is something we absolutely need to know. God has accordingly disclosed to us several things concerning them in the Scriptures. However, since these subjects are in their nature and connection necessarily mysterious, we find our examination of them attended from time-to-time with difficulties and perplexities, and are apt to believe that if more had been disclosed our difficulties and perplexities would have been lessened.

This is, however, an entire mistake. Had more things been revealed concerning these subjects, their nature would have seemed more vast, their connections more numerous and perplexing, their consequences more difficult and doubtful, and their mysteriousness more absolute and discouraging. Our minds, therefore, would in this case have been less satisfied and settled than they now are, and the influence of this part of Revelation on our hearts and lives would have been less useful and happy. In our present situation we are prone to imagine that if we could see a little farther and know a little more we should arrive at certain boundaries where satisfaction and rest would be obtained. But did we reflect with only a moderate degree of attention and candor, we should perceive that our adventures in knowledge are like excursions in space, where the imagined goal at which we intend to stop retires even faster than we advance, and will continue to retire forever.

Thus, from the very nature of the case, it seems evident that the secret things referred to in the text are wisely withheld from us by our Creator.

[daisy-rivers]

I’m being haunted. No, really.

The more I write about Danny Phoenix, the more I get the feeling that he’s following me around. A couple of weeks ago, his ghost knocked a Bible off my bookshelf (see previous post), making sure it fell open to the Book of Daniel. Yesterday, he reminded me of the most important traits of his character: courage, ambition, and honor. Here’s what happened.

Characters from The Scarlet Pimpernel have joined Hamilton characters in my current fanfic, I Go to France. If you’re familiar with The Scarlet Pimpernel, you’ll know that the hero of the story is Sir Percy Blakeney. That name worked fine in the eighteenth century, but now, particularly with thoughts of the annoying Percy Weasley in my head, it didn’t suggest the brave, dashing character that I was looking for, and I flipped it to Blake Percy. In the current chapter, Danny and Blake are on a long car ride, and they get better acquainted. I needed to give Blake a British title, so I did a quick search to be sure there isn’t already a Duke of Percy or something. There’s not, but it turns out that there is a historically important Percy family, so of course, I went down that rabbit hole. What did I find waiting for me?

It seems that back in the fourteenth century, there was a Sir Henry Percy, who shows up as a character in Shakespeare’s Henry IV (Part 1). Why don’t I remember him? Because in that play, he’s known by a nickname, a nickname that he acquired by his courageous and impetuous behavior that arose from a quest for honor and glory.

The nickname? Hotspur.

What is Tim’s nickname for Danny when we first meet him in I Like You a Lot? Yeah, Hotspur.

Completely coincidentally, of course. Right.

I got it, Danny. I was giving you too much fluffy downtime, and you wanted things to get a little more exciting. No problem. I fixed it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16747234/chapters/39288505

[cureattroy]

take a look at these bastards.

( and i am totally not eyeing the "engaged in 'the violation of the most sacred of all ties between men and women.'" line, totally not, not wondering what that means at all )

[daisy-rivers]

March 24 is the day we commemorate Saint Diana’s, the “good thief,” who plays a symbolic part in my “The Revolution’s Happening” on AO3. He’s the patron saint of the incarcerated and of repentent criminals. He’s also a reminder that it’s never too late to do the right thing.

[triviaproofing]

#1791: “In 1822 Timothy Dwight, president of Yale College, forbade all students to play football. Violators were to be reported the dean and were to be penalized by a fine not to exceed fifty cents.”

False.

Neither of the Timothy Dwights that were Yale presidents in the nineteenth century fit the year, either 1822 or 1882. Grandfather was president of Yale from 1795 to 1817 and grandson was president from 1886 to 1898.

Plus the first game of football was played in 1869. So it’s possible 1822 is a typo. But Walter Camp, the “Father of American Football,” played his last year of college football at Yale in 1882, ruling out any violations against football.

[incorrect-muncle-quotes]

Dean Dwight: You hurt my daughter’s feelings.

Illya: I hurt your daughter’s feelings, why?

Dean Dwight: Because you told her to fuck off.

Illya: Oh, really? Did I?

Dean Dwight: Yeah.

Illya: Well, can you tell her I meant it?

[quafaie]

The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts.

Timothy Dwight, American minister and professor