Thomas Beddoes to Maria Thompson, [?1803] (7)
My dear ____,
I am very much obliged by your letter. It breathes the tranquillity, which you say you enjoy; and though I thought you had a peculiarly happy manner of expressing yourself ever since I had any means of judging, it shews you to be improved in this talent. Probably you talk so well because you feel so happy.
I am very glad you can take pleasure in Botany. Pray collect all the sea and other plants, whether you know them or not. Arrange them like yourself; discover the class and order when you can go no farther. When you have made yourself mistress of a certain number of plants, you will read Dr. Darwin’s Phytologia with much advantage. I am afraid Search is scarcely to be had. I could never procure it but on loan.
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I have several essays to forward to you. The one on consumption would have answered your question about bathing. I am quite a slave to these essays. The necessity of finishing each by a certain day, lies sometimes like a stone on my heart. I shall be emancipated however, in three months, and shall rejoice in my emancipation as much as any person of my acquaintance in their’s. Farewell and proceed as well as you do now.
Published: Stock, pp. 292–93