t of Gibson’s mother; he was welcome to sleep in James’s bed whether or not James was at home. Mrs. Gibson enclosed Mifﬂin’s letters to her son inside her own. When Mifﬂin failed to write, Gibson asked his mother for news of him. Mary Parker Norris, the Romance of Leander, Lorenzo, and Castalio 35 mother of Mifﬂin’s friend Isaac, also welcomed Mifﬂin into her house and her son’s bed. ’’ In fact, Mrs. Norris was so far from disapproving of Mifﬂin’s inﬂuence that she encouraged him to take her youngest son, Charles, under his wing.
But like any new force, it also appeared to be dangerous, which heightened its allure. In a testament to the power of sympathy, most of early American novels and many of the British imports in circulation documented its ability to seduce and ruin those, usually young women, who failed to understand its operations. ∞≠ It fascinated Mifﬂin. His diary returns again and again to two concerns: his moods and his friendships. In colonial America, ‘‘friendship’’ had been a euphemism for patronage and dependence.