[25 August - 15 September 1802 ] [Date supplied by editors.]

I received yours with Need I tell you that I received your last letter with great pleasure? No letter
sanction'd with the name of a good friend can be uninteresting. Yours hurries me back to past scenes & pleasures
& pleases my enraptured fancy with a [illegible] of former pleasures. But You start a doubt whether I still
remember you. This for a moment cast a gloom over your letter, which you yourself fondly grav'd away the next. There are some, -- I have seen such -- who can change their friends with the
seasons as the trees do their leaves, but like them they be left exposed in the winds of age to
indure the peltings of the merciless storm. Thank God we are not of that class! Cold & icy
hearts have an exclusive title to it. If we have not received letters regularly it is caused by
miscarriage. But to cross the subject, A correspondence with you is a favorite object
with me. It has, & I hope will continue to be a source of pleasure & improvement. A Diffe-
rence in situation afford us rich food for an epistolary communication. Some
times we may note the various observations we have made on men & things,
again we the events that take place in our different spheres, -- & sometimes we may melt
even the frost of age by a reflection of the scenes of youth. Shall a correspondence
begun under such favorable auspices be stopped in its infancy? Let it rather
grow with our growth & strengthen with our strength. Thus we may [note] pleasant communion thence [illegible] [by more yet diverse?] We shall again see each other.
You would not Were I to tell you on the banks of the Ohio, you would not think me serious. [illegible]
[illegible] I wrote to you. I have exchanged College
for a Lawyers office. The first degree was conferred on me at the last commencement.
You can hardly conceive the feelings [must?] that arise on such an occasion. The [singled?] regret on
leaving College a place where you have enjoyed four years, -- the pleasing idea a burst in college bonds &
getting out into the world -- the painful emotions separation of friends & a thousand such
like thoughts to fill the mind with alternate feelings of pleasure & pain -- indeed I have hardly determined whether
m leaving College is a cause of greater joy or sorrow. Another thing that does or should cause very anxious
thought is the choice of a profession. Few duly consider this momentoust act, on which their future happiness &

respectability so much depend. On the [wh ]ole few periods in ones life are so interesting as the time of
leaving college.

Perhaps you will think the choice of a profession has not made a sufficient impression
on my mind. In truth I myself begin to fear it. But I have long been determined
& intend to persevere, incouraged by the belief that a man of honesty & industry will
meet with sure reward. Here we are crowded with Lawyers; -- many find but poor
support picking: what will they do years hence? I would be obliged to you for information in the your next
respecting the prospect for Lawyers in your part of the country. Perhaps I might
muster courage enough to penetrate those savage regions. If I sho study here three
years, might I be admitted to your bar?* --     If there is too much egotism
in this letter let my situation excuse it. Politics etc. etc. in my next.

*There perhaps we may [often?] meet, opponents, & the thunder of our noise if not eloquence
shall fill the fill the [two duplicate words] multitude with astonishment. We cannot be too grateful for our lungs.