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Pforzheimer Collection, New York Public Library, Misc 2213. Previously published: A. F. Wedd, The Love-letters of Mary Hays (1779-1780), pp. 242-245 [misdated 3 May 1803].
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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My letter would be a valuable one if the ability of suggesting any fit subject for your talents were equal to the good will with which it is attempted.
Novels are generally interesting in proportion as they excite our attention by what is new. I think the manners & customs of other countries & other times afford mines of such novelty as yet unransacked. the materials are easily acquired from our numerous books of travels. It will be far more difficult to keep up the metaphysical costume. if I did not believe you were capable of overcoming this difficulty I should <not> offer the suggestion. some materials for thinking may be afforded by thus contrasting the opinions & institutions of different countries, & enforcing what is true everywhere.
The French Atalat
Pierres Tales
Whenever I have thought of writing a novel
among my own ways & means, to develope some single
character has been the main object of the plan. Such for
instance as a man who accustoms himself to look at every
thing in a ridiculous point of view, till by laughing at
every thing, he laughs away every good principle. A great
mind ruined by a little failing would well deserve to be
delineated – by indecision – or procrastination, or by that
excess of good humour which submits to weaker intellects
rather than inflict pain. I have dwelt with more pleasure
upon the ideal character of a man renouncing fair prospects
for principle, throwing himself upon the world with the
belief that while he can obtain food, raiment or shelter it
is beneath him to be unhappy, & being happy in
consequence of that belief.
The narrative of Madame Godinr Lediard,& the friends
if you could find a bookseller who would set out this book
with good maps, & prints for which Denons book
There is a good history of Charlemagne in
four duodecimo by Gaillard.modern later travellers. there exists no
translation of Niebuhrs travels except a miserable
mutilation by that wretched Scotchman Heron.
In whatever plan you may adopt, if there be
any way in which I can be of the smallest service I shall be
very glad to prove that the proffer is not designed a mere form of
courtesy. Should you like my first suggestion I have a trick
of dreaming stories & could send you some rude outlines
which you might work upon at your own pleasure, & fill
up – or use as painters use their daubs. In the course of
next month I expect to visit London, & will then look
for Ollivier