Theophilus Lindsey, Essex Street, Strand, to Mary Hays, [Gainsford Street], 15 April 1793.

Essex Street, Strand

April 15. 1793

 Madam

       I should be glad to know any way in which I could make a return for the valuable present of your book;3 for which you would have received my thanks much earlier, had I been acquainted with your address.

       Eusebia4 had led me to think highly of the author: but many things in the Letters and Essays have raised my ideas much higher, in which are such traces of just thought and well-digested reading on a variety of subjects, and of a lively correct imagination[.]

       The scarecrow doctrine of Necessity you have shown how to strip of its horrid form, and to familiarize and make it ^easy,^ and I think to vindicate it’s truth, to those that will read and make use of their understandings.

       In short I like both your metaphysics and divinity: but most of all, what appears in every page, the enlightened mind, turned to virtue and to God, and ardent to inspire others with the same sentiments and engage in the same pursuits. Madam, always your much

                         obliged servant,

                                     T. Lindsey.

Text: A. F. Wedd Collection, shelfmark 24.93(1), Dr. Williams's Library, London; no address page.