TO MISS LUCY FREEMAN.

NEW HAVEN.

I have received, and read again and again, your friendly epistle. My
reason and judgment entirely coincide with your opinion; but my fancy
claims some share in the decision; and I cannot yet tell which will
preponderate. This was the day fixed for deciding Mr. Boyer's cause. My
friends here gave me a long dissertation on his merits. Your letter,
likewise, had its weight; and I was candidly summoning up the _pros_ and
_cons_ in the garden, whither I had walked, (General Richman and lady
having rode out,) when I was informed that he was waiting in the parlor.
I went immediately in, (a good symptom, you will say,) and received him
very graciously. After the first compliments were over, he seemed eager
to improve the opportunity to enter directly on the subject of his
present visit. It is needless for me to recite to you, who have long
been acquainted with the whole process of courtship, the declarations,
propositions, protestations, entreaties, looks, words, and actions of a
lover. They are, I believe, much the same in the whole sex, allowing for
their different dispositions, educations, and characters; but you are
impatient, I know, for the conclusion.

You have hastily perused the preceding lines, and are straining your eye
forward to my part of the farce; for such it may prove, after all. Well,
then, not to play too long with the curiosity which I know to be excited
and actuated by real friendship, I will relieve it. I think you would
have been pleased to have seen my gravity on this important occasion.
With all the candor and frankness which I was capable of assuming, I
thus answered his long harangue, to which I had listened without
interrupting him: "Self-knowledge, sir, that most important of all