LETTER LXV.
To G. Cartwright.
Banks of Delaware, Oct. 5
My Brother,
It would avail me nothing to deny the confessions
to which you allude. Neither will I
conceal from you that I am much grieved at
the discovery. Far am I from deeming your
good opinion of little value; but in this case, I
was more anxious to deserve it, than possess
it.
Little, indeed, did you know me, when you
imagined me insensible to your merit and forgetful
of the happy days of our childhood; the recollection
of which has a thousand times made
my tears flow. I thank heaven that the evils
which I have suffered, have had no tendency
to deaden my affections; to narrow my heart.
The joy which I felt for your departure was
far from being unmixed. The persuasion that
my friend and brother was going where he was
likely to find that tranquillity of which his stay
here would bereave him, but imperfectly soothed
the pangs of a long and perhaps an eternal
separation.
Farewell: my fervent and disinterested blessings
go with you. Return speedily to your
country, but bring with you a heart devoted to
another, and only glowing with a brotherly affection
for
