(seq. 49)

[fol. 1r]

No 18. Brookline, Feb. 25th 1797.

Dear friend,

WhenI take my pen to write to an old &
esteemed friend I find so many things to say that I can
not promise myself much method or accuracy in expressing
them. What, however, lies uppermost in my mind is, that I
have not heard from you or your dear wife these some months.
Before you were inthralled (pardon me) I mean bound by
the chain of wedlock, I experienced your literary favors as
often as once a month. But since matrimony has taken
possession of your heart & engrossed your affections, your
old friends, it seems, must be neglected. You have now
been in the married state, (let me consider,) these seven
happy months; during wh period you have turned me
off with but one letter & two small billets. I long to have
your honey moon over; for I may then expect you to re-
sume ancient familiarity. This luminary must be of ex-
tremely long duration, if it have not by this time begun
in splendor, & move round its centre of attraction without
matrimony mine. I would even try my chance, were
there even a hundred to one of lessing it. I have so much
to say to you, or rather so many questions to ask, con-
cerning the subject, that I will even wait till------------
But here a subject rises to view, a subject to me, & per-
haps to some others of eternal importance. On this I
cannot be too serious. It has given me many a sleep-
less hour & many an anxious thought. In my last I
recollect promising to give you some account of my re-
lation to Brookline. But such a complication of duties,
cares & employments has engrossed my time, that I have
quite neglected all my friends, even her whom I ought