
          Recd. Feby. 28th
[?] Manchester

Princeton Feby 23rd 1835.

My Dear Friend

Your letters have been received and I have
not the excuse you were so kind as to hope
for me. I will not attemp an apology for
my procrastination but merely state that the present
session had been one of the most laborious periods of my
life You know thus I am pressing on with my course
so as to leave the field intensly to you during the next summer.

I have been twice at Phila [Philadelphia] and on my return have
been obliged to do double duty [?] not to fall behind in
the [?] course of lectures & recitations. Besides this
I have submitted two papers to the Phil Society of which
we were at the same time made members. the First
paper is a description of my battery described as an instrument
of research and to be refined to in my suceeding articles -
My second paper is the second of a series which I intend
to communicate under the head of Contributions to Elect. and
magnetism; it is an account of my experiments on the spark
[?] produced by connecting the poles of a battery of a single pair
of plates I announced the first part of this phenominon in
Sillimans journal for 1802 and in the Nov number of the
Annals of Philos. Mr Faraday mentions the same fact without
however noticing my publication this induced me to arrange
my experiments for publication and in so doing many
new suggestions were presented to my mind which
required imediate testing by by direct experiments the
result was that the subject grew very rapidly
under my investigations and has opened quite a field
of research. I have given to the Society all my labours
up to this time and must dismiss the subject from my
thoughts until the next vacation when if it please Providence
I intend resuming my experiments

You will see by the above
that my procrastination in your case has not been for
want of inclination but from the belief that I would
have more leisure in a few days.

With regard to Mr [Pager?] I have heard nothing about
his leaving Princton he is now married and I think has become

[left margin] What is the use of a friend unless you can use him says an old proverb. I have given you
a commission which I fear will afford you much trouble yet my wife wishes me
to make a farther draught on your Kindness & to request that you will bring for her a few
quarts of the dried cherries which we had last Summer from your city 
        