your letter has afforded me satisfaction by convincing me
I am not so contemptible a character as I should be did
I possess your esteem. With respect to your heart
I believe it to be quite as worthless as your letter, and
did it offer me a refusal some difficulty might occur
to decide whether to throw it on the dunghill or the fire.
Matrimony is a union not to be formed without due care,
my knowledge of you has redoubled caution on this point,
and I should prefer you on such an event taking place,
if like Polita I wish to deal in monkeys and apes—