TO MR. RICHARDSON

January 3,1750-51

Dear Sir,

I know not whether you will not laugh, and call me vain, when I say that I had almost resolved not to write to you again on the subject of our present correspondence, had you not so greatly obliged me, by giving to my entreaties the supplement to your last, which you had intended to keep from me; as if your taking the trouble to read what I scribble, were not a fresh obligation! Yet I cannot help expressing my gratitude in this way for your distinguishing kindness in bestowing so much time and pains on one who can so ill repay your goodness; and who for all the pride, the pleasure, and improvement she has received from your friendship and correspondence, has nothing to offer you but her sincerest thanks, her best esteem, and an affection and reverence next to filial; nothing to entertain you with but the rude essays of an ignorant girl, the unconnected sallies of a wild imagination, with but little judgment to direct or control it.

But you will wonder why I should have intended not to answer your last favour. My reason was, that I began to perceive (at least I thought I did) that we were both on the same side of the question; or rather, that we had left Bishop Hall, and Mr. Locke's first quoted paragraph, in the opposite extremities, and were advancing to meet each other in the happy medium.