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Pray tell me what sort of woman is this, we are goi[gap]
to see.

You have made a strange request of me. What pre=
tensions have I to a knowledge of her character? I am
not her brother; her kinsman. My acquaintance with her
is of yesterday. Our interviews have always been at
stated times; with visiting formalities; & have not been
numerous: Nor, on any occasion, single & ex^clusive.
Conversation, to throw much light upon character; must
be unreserved; confidential, &, especially, unwitnessed. It
is then that hearts are probed; that features are com=
municative; & feelings unrestrained

Neither are the defects of my own observation, made
up by that of others. I enjoy not the confidence of her
intimates. I am not master of a single page of her past
history. I have heard, neither the eulogies of friends, nor
the aspersions of her enemies.

In most cases, the only sources of information as to
character & history of individuals, are their own communi=
=cations. These sources are not infallable; but they are the
best to be had, & are compleat, when added to our own ob=
=servation & to foreign testimony.

I love the talk which is without reserve: where the
talker, has so far the habits of frankness, as always to
be prone to talk about herself, & that purity of mind
as inclines her to bestow confidence, & lay aside constraint

Is this such a talker?

I cannot tell. She has not been so to me. From unfortu
nate prepossessions, she was, at first, at the opening of
acquaintance, accustomed to regard me with suspicion &
timidity. As one prone to cavil at trivial faults: A Hy=
=percritic. Scrupulous about words: Always on the watch

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[gap]ders; satisfied with nothing but fastidious refinements
[gap]pressions & sentiment.

Hence a diffident; anxious; hesitating; & embarrassed
[gap]anner, like a boy before a pedagogue. Having an hearty
contempt for the character imputed to me; vexed by conti=
nual proofs of this uneasy & suspicious state of mind
in her, I had almost resolved to withdraw myself from her
society; conceiving this to be but just to one, whom my
company must more distress than please.

These circumstances, joined to those in which my visits
were always paid to her, shut up that source of the
knowledge of the human character, which consists in
the unreserved disclosures of the subject himself.

This diffidence has of late somewhat lessened. Her
talk is free from some of these restraints. She seems to speak
without an anxious enquiry before hand, in what light an
harsh, perverse, & fastidious censurer may view what she
is about to say.

And what discoveries has this new spirit of conversation,
enabled you to make

Very little. From my own insagacity & inattentiveness perhaps

But tell me just the impression which she makes upon
you. Never heed niceties of arrangement & expression. Merely
make the scroll of your brain visible to me.

You have set a very hard task. I am conscious of nothing
but deficiencies in my own views respecting ^{‸ her}. I have a distant
& momentary glymse of her as she passes forward in life’s
Highway. Her port, seen thus faintly & thus far, is not with
out dignity, & rectitude

But I only see for a moment. I enter not her bosom; she
has not given me the y key; I see not the wavering thoughts;
the groundless surmises; the oft=repeated & as oft-condemned
departures from equanimity & candour that may harbour there.
I see her not at those arduous & sacred moments when the most


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studiously disguised or most transitory feeling, looks out in
the features & actions.

And this want of a domestic & familiar stand whence I may
observe her, is not supplied by the duration of our intercourse
Years of casual interviews & formal conversations before I
gain a tolerable acquaintance with her virtues & defects.

Yet I’ll describe to you simply & truly my present im=
pressions, whencesoever they proceed, & howsoever imperfect.

She is a woman that deserves respect, for her capacity.
Her judgement is strong, & solid & correct. From the multitude
of women we may turn away with indifference or contempt,
but here is a mind with which there is profit & pleasure in
conversing. Did her understanding ^{‸ operate} without those shackles
& embarrassments, arising from self=distrust & distrust of
the candour of her hearers: Did she join to her own sagacity
& knowledge; that graceful self=possession, ease & vivacity,
which is more easily imagined, than exemplified, the ex=
=cellent qualities of her understanding would have that
justice done them, which is now refused

As a rational existance she wants much. There are a thou=
sand graces of deportment, & branches of knowledge in
which she is deficient, but there are very few women who
are not more deficient in the latter respect than she.

There are many who possess, at all times, that flowing
utterances, that unlaboured gracefulness; that dignity which
this lady (I persuade myself) possesses, to those whom
she admits to familiarity & confidence.

If I ever am of that number, I am sure I sure I shall
find it so.

The other parts of her picture consist of what is visible
& audible to every companion. Her shape, her features, her
drapery, her tones of voice, her attitudes & gestures, exist toge
=ther in my fancy, but these will be conveyed to you by
a single glance more accurately & compleatly, than by


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score volumes.

In each of these, of course, there is something to condemn
& approve. Some faults of nature, & therefore irremediable
Others, the growth of habit, & therefore capable of amendment.

And what are these habitual faults?

Really, I have not been a sufficiently accurate observer to
detail them. If you wish it, I will endeavour, by future attention
to these particulars, to attone for past negligence. It is evident
from this, that they have not been very important or conspicu=
ous. They are peculiarities of which every one possesses his
share, & of most, the share is far greater than hers

Dec. 15. 1800.