T. SELBY.


LETTER XXV.

TO THE REV. J. BOYER.

NEW HAVEN.

Sir: Your favor of the 4th instant came to hand yesterday. I received it
with pleasure, and embrace this early opportunity of contributing my
part to a correspondence tending to promote a friendly and social
intercourse. An epistolary communication between the sexes has been with
some a subject of satire and censure; but unjustly, in my opinion. With
persons of refinement and information, it may be a source of
entertainment and utility. The knowledge and masculine virtues of your
sex may be softened and rendered more diffusive by the inquisitiveness,
vivacity, and docility of ours, drawn forth and exercised by each
other.

In regard to the _particular_ subject of yours, I shall be silent. Ideas
of that kind are better conveyed, on my part, by words than by the pen.

I congratulate you on your agreeable settlement, and hope it will be
productive of real and lasting happiness. I am convinced that felicity
is not confined to any particular station or condition in life; yet,
methinks, some are better calculated to afford it to me than others.

Your extract from a favorite poet is charmingly descriptive; but is it
not difficult to ascertain what we can pronounce "an elegant