“My dear Sir,—Will you forgive me if I say one word to you on the subject of the introduction with which you favoured me yesterday?
“There are two kinds of introductions, and I am unable to ascertain to which class your friend belongs. Otherwise one word would stand in the place of fifty.
“I am not yet so old but that I should be glad to add to the number of my acquaintance, any man from whom I was likely to obtain profit or pleasure. But to be such a man, Hamlet says, ‘as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.’
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“Now, if your friend is not such a man (will you excuse me?) my time is too precious, and I have too few days left in my little span of life to wish to increase my acquaintance without some absolute gain. I desire no more than that you would examine yourself and enquire whether he is a man whose intercourse would afford me reasonable delight, you cannot bring him too soon, and I shall hold myself your debtor. If he is not, put him off for this time.—Sincerely and thankfully yours,
