I could not omit so favorable an opportunity as the present of writing
you a line by Mr. Warren, who is upon his travel and probably may take
France in his way. The welfare of your family is so essential to your
happiness that I would improve every means of assuring you of it and of
communicating to you the pleasure I have had in receiving every letter
you have written since you first left the harbor of Boston. Mine to you
have not been equally successful. Several packets have been sent to
Neptune, though improperly directed, and I query whether, having found
his mistake, he has had complaisance enough to forward them. So that you
must not charge to me any failure, in point of punctuality or attention,
but to the avidity of the watery god who I really believe has destroyed
them. But enough of romance.
You see me in good spirits. I can tell you the cause. The _Alliance_
arrived last week and brought me the feast of reason and the flow of
soul; assurances too of the health of my dear absent friends. Those only
who know what a separation is of the tenderest connections can form
adequate ideas of the happiness which even a literary communication
affords.