If the epithet Dear pleas’d [me] that of Friend did all that was possible to be done it pleas’d me much. Now you [expect] me to have done my preamble and come to [the] substance. I am not clear it will [have] any yet if Truth is not and [Man has] none, the love of it, I think, [appears to] me above the love of other things, [and if] I ever utter’d one I do when I declare that your Manner of expressing it is peculiarly pleasing to me, the generality of people being too much like a school Boys piece so encompass’d with flourishes that the thing itself is not enough seen to be admir’d. I am not a good similist and tho an inhabitant of the East a very bad metaphor maker so tropes and figures apart I shall in a plain and simple manner thank you and dear Mrs. Stevenson for the friendly invitation which I shall most joyfully accept one day next week, not till after Tuesday and before Sunday. It depended not on my whim but the whim of those who ride in the machine from Winchester, the coach I must come in, that if not full are so kind as to pick up crumbs by the way. I being one must be content to return to this place and try once and again. I need not desire that our Polly may be had if possible. The sweet little woman Lady B. that you would love dearly is now at my elbow and as I have been scribbling the whole Morning I feel that I ought to devote the rest of the day to her. So good evening, good night, good all, that I can wish or you can want be unto you my good sir, and all you love—this is my benediction and with this I will depart according to my word.