1818 February 23, Philadelphia, to My dear Elenor, Plymouth

              Philada 2 mo 23 1818My dear Elenor,Shall I tell thee what I have just been thinking of?.... Supposing thy answer to be yes, I will proceed. I was musing about thee this Evening awhile before Tea, & I remembered thy first expression in thy Letter was, "It is with much pleasure that I now sit down to write to thee etc." Much pleasure! said I to myself. Yes indeed, I can believe it: yet however much it was, mine was at least equal to it in the reading. Thus I could easily believe that the same Love which made it such a pleasure to me to receive, made it also a pleasure to thee to send. Ah! my dear, how many of our enjoyments depend upon our loving each other! and flow from the improvement of our best affections! When we think for a moment, suppose there was nobody in the world that I could love, or by whom I was beloved; then the dreariness, and desolateness, and misery of such a situation where there are no endearing friends or companions to share with us in either joy or trouble, makes the world appear to us like a lonesome Wild in which nothing can interest us, and teaches us the value of those connections to whom we are bound by the ties of Tenderness & love. Oh my dear Ellen, let us ever love, and strive to the utmost of our power to make each other happy! and let us ever remember that there is no true happiness but in the paths of usefulness & goodness, let us therefore be diligent in our endeavors to qualify ourselves for becoming useful. Little do many young people think, when they are first setting out in life, how much depends upon their own exertions: but I want thee my Daughter to be wise in time; and not waste the golden moments of youth in careless ease, or suffer