
          My Dear Friend 


 Thanks for your favor of the 10th.
 Busy as I am, pressed beyond what is pleasant or 
 profitable, yet I am never too busy to receive a letter 
 from you with pleasure. I hasten to reply to 
 the most important topic, that which relates to 
 the Chemical professorship in Philadelphia. I hope 
 you will not delay to let your name go to the 
 Board as a Candidate. No other place so good 
 as this is likely ever to offer again, and though it 
 is not desirable in the abstract that you should be 
 obliged to abandon Botany as a pursuit, yet this
 professorship is one for which you are so especially well 
 adapted, one which yields so good an income, so 
 desirable for your family, and it is so needful for your 
 own comfort that you should be relieved from all anxiety 
 about such matters, in fact there seems to be 
 every reason why you should secure the place if it 
 falls in your reach, and none to the contrary that 
 I can think of. Henry cannot well give up 
 his present position, indeed he ought not. His influence 
 ought to be powerful in your behalf. Patterson can
 have no particular qualifications for the place, and I 
        