11

to be wondered at that you, possessing all the [charms]
I have just given you, should have made so easy
a conquest of my heart.

I had been from childhood of a
sober serious turn of mind, devoted to books & study. I
was never fond of company or society. I early [imbibed?]
a prejudice against the [insincerity] of the one and
the heartlessness of the other. In my manner I
was plain, and [unpretentious], & that proud soul
which natures God has endowed me with ever
seemed to humble itself or act falsely. Hence I was
no courtier or Chesterfield.

But I [forbere?] to give you
a sketch of my own character in your Journal
This I will leave for you to [discover?. I
have done so in my own Journal & with
an [illegible] & [illegible] which might
surprise you. My faults which are many
are told with the honest frankness of one who
feels & knows them & who would gladly rem-
idy them, but who can not conceal them.

In conclusion let me
say that if you will only write one
sentence [every] week in this Book for
twenty years, it will at the end of that
time afford you more interest to look
over its pages than any other Book in this
world.

July 16^th 1837— B. F. Perry