es and the thunder is heard no more in those boundless
regions, where the heavenly bodies accomplish their periods in
eternal and sublime silence."

Excuse me in my trade of sentence-monger, and believe me, dear
Mrs. Somerville, truly your obliged and truly your affectionate
friend,

MARIA EDGEWORTH.

I have persuaded your dear curly-headed friend, Harriet, to add her
own observations; she sends her love to you; and I know you love
her, otherwise I would not press her to write her own _say_.

* * * * *

FROM MISS JOANNA BAILLIE TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

HAMPSTEAD, _February 1st, 1832_.

MY DEAR MRS. SOMERVILLE,

I am now, thank God! recovered from a very heavy disease, but still
very weak. I will not, however, delay any longer my grateful
acknowledgments for your very flattering gift of your Preliminary
Dissertation. Indeed, I feel myself greatly honoured by receiving
such a mark of regard from one who has done more to remove the light
estimation in which the capacity of women is too often held, than
all that has been accomplished by the whole sisterhood of poetical
damsels and novel-writing authors. I could say much more on this
subject were I to follow my own feelings; but I am still so weak
that writing is a trouble to me, and I have nearly done all that I
am able.

God bless and prosper you!
Yours gratefully and truly,
J. BAILLIE.

* * * * *

FROM MISS BERRY TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

BELLEVUE, _18th September, 1834_.

MY DEAR MRS. SOMERVILLE,

I have just finished reading your book, which has entertained me
extremely, and at the same time, I hope, improved my moral character
in the Christian virtue of humility. These must appear to you such
_odd_ results--so little like those produced on the great majority
of your readers, that you must allow me to explain them to you.
Humbled, I must be, by finding my own intellect unequal to
following, beyond a first step, the explanations by which you seek
to make easy to comprehension the marvellous phenomena of the
universe--humbled, by feeling the intellectual difference between
you and me, placing you a