If he is still at Newport, it
would, perhaps, more readily reach him from New-York than from any
part of New-England that you maybe at. I have said that if I am
mistaken in directing the within letter, you should cover it and give
it the proper address. Do, dear Burr, get somebody who can write at
least a passable hand to back it, for you give your letters such a
sharp, slender, and lady-like cast, that almost every one, on seeing
them, would conclude there was a correspondence kept up between my
honest friend Spring and some of the female tribe, which might,
perhaps, affect him extremely in point of reputation, as many people
suppose that nothing of this kind can be carried on between unmarried
persons of the two sexes without being tinged with love; and the
rather so, since the notion of Platonic love is, at the present day,
pretty generally, and I believe justly too, exploded. Platonic love is
arrant nonsense, and rarely, if ever, takes place until the parties
have at least passed their grand climacteric. Besides, the New-England
people, I am told, are odd, inquisitive kind of beings, and, when
pricked on by foolish curiosity, may perhaps open the letter, which I
do not choose should be common to every eye.
"You gave me some hopes that you would see my good friend Reeve before
you returned. If you do, make him my respectful compliments, and tell
him that I fully designed to write him, but that business prevented,
that laziness hindered, that--in short, tell him any thing, so it does
not impeach my affection, or lead him to think I have entirely
forgotten him.
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