"When you answer the enclosed, I beg it may be in English, as the lady is quite mistress of that language."[94:1]
The letter forwarded to Hume was as follows:
For a long time, sir, I have struggled with conflicting sentiments. The admiration which your sublime work has awakened in me, and the esteem with which it has inspired me for your person, your talents, and your virtue, have often aroused the desire of writing to you, that I might express those sentiments towards you with which I am so deeply penetrated.
On the other hand, keeping in view the little value you can have for my opinion, your want of personal acquaintance with me, and the reserve and privacy, even, which are suitable to my sex, I fear being accused of presumption, and of making myself be known, to my own disadvantage, by a man whose good opinion I shall always regard as the most flattering, and the most precious of benefits. Nevertheless, although the reflections I have made on this subject appeared to have much force, an irresistible inclination rendered them unavailing; and I come to add one to the thousand other instances, to justify the truth of that remark which I have read in your "History of the House of Stuart,"--"Men's views of things are the result of their understanding alone: their conduct is regulated by their understanding, their temper, and their passions." Thus, when my reason tells me I ought to be silent, my enthusiasm prevents me from regarding its voice.
Although a woman, and of no very advanced age, despite the dissipation attendant on the life one leads in this country, having always loved reading, there are few good books in any language, or of any kind, that I have not read, either in the original, or in translations; and I can assure you, sir, with a sincerity which cannot be questioned, that I have found none which, to my judgment, unites so many perfections as your own. I know no terms capable of expressing what I felt in reading this work. I was moved, transported: and the emotion which it caused me is, in some measure, painful by its continuance. It elevates the soul; it fills the heart with sentiments of humanity and benevolence; it enlightens the intellect, by showing that true happiness is closely connected with virtue; and discovers, by the same light, what is the end, and the sole end, of every reasonable being. In the midst of the calamities which, on all sides, surrounded Charles the First, we see peace and security shining in their brightness, and accompanying him to the scaffold; whilst trouble and remorse, the inseparable companions of crime, follow the steps of Cromwell, even to the throne.