41

This is not right, is not just , is not
true to the best that is in you.
For I know and esteem you, and feel
that your nature is noble,
Lifting mine up be a higher, a more
etherial level.

Therefore I value your friendship
and feel it perhaps the more [keenly?]
If you say aught that implies I am
only as one among many
If you make use of those common
and complimentary phrases
Most men think so fine, in dealing
and speaking with women
But which women reject as insipid
if not as insulting"

"Let us then, be what we are, and
speak what we think & in all ^things
Keep ourselves loyal to truth, and the
sacred professions of friendship