I beg leave to return a thousand thanks to my kind Mistress, to Mr. and Mrs. Paine and George for their remembrances, and venture to give mine with respect in return. I am very glad to hear that all are well. I am very much afraid you say too much of me to Mr. Dance, Mr. Cosway, Mrs. Udney, etc., for I feel unworthy of what you have said of me formerly, and what you may say now. Since I have left England, the experience I have gained in more diversified and extended life, and the knowledge I have gained of what is to be learned and what others know, have sufficiently shown me my own ignorance, the degree in which I am surpassed by all the world, and my want of powers; but I hope that at least I shall return home with an addition to my self-knowledge. When speaking of those who are so much my superiors, as Mr. Dance, Mr. Cosway, and Mrs. Udney, etc., I feel a continual fear that I should appear to want respect, but the manner in which you mention their names in your letter emboldens me to beg that you will give my humblest respects to those honored persons, if, and only if (I am afraid of intruding) they should again speak of me to you. Mr. Dance’s kindness claims my gratitude, and I trust that my thanks, the only mark that I can give, will be accepted. [Sidenote: BOOKS AND BOOKSELLERS.] Since I have been abroad, my old profession of books has oftentimes occurred to my mind and been productive of much pleasure. It was my wish at first to purchase some useful book at every large town we came to, but I found my stock increase so fast that I was obliged to alter my plan and purchase only at Capital Cities. The first books that I wanted were grammars and dictionaries, but I found few places like London where I could get whatever I wanted. In France (at the time we were there) English books were very scarce, and also English and French books; and a French grammar for an Englishman was a thing difficult to find. Nevertheless the shops appeared well stocked with books in their own language, and the encouragement Napoleon gave to Arts and Sciences extended its influence even to the printing and binding of books. I saw some beautiful specimens in both these branches at the Bibliothèque Impériale at Paris, but I still think they did not exceed or even equal those I had seen in London before. We have as yet seen very little of Germany, having passed rapidly through Switzerland and stopping but a few days at Munich, but that little gave me a very favorable idea of the Booksellers’ shops. I got an excellent English and German dictionary immediately I asked for it, and other books I asked for I found were to be had, but E. and G. Grammars were scarce, owing to the little communication between the two Empires, and the former power of the French in Germany.