a rambling style I am writing in; but I don't know how it is, when I have the pen in my hand it seems to communicate the perpetual motion to my fingers. Talking of perpetual motion, what an absurdity it is to think that it can ever be discovered! and yet I have heard people who think themselves very clever at mechanics talk as if it might be discovered; I once heard a very superior man say that the perpetual motion was one of nature's arcana. Oh, how pleasant it is to have a correspondent to whom one can write freely and fully on any subject! How few are there like you, my dear friend, who have any interest in the pursuits of science and the discoveries of philosophy; and of those few who pretend to any relish for such things, there are not many who like you understand the subjects on which they converse: they are mere smatterers. You told me, I remember, that you found less literature and science in the world than you expected; and let me assure you, that is much rarer than even you imagine. The number of pretenders is very great; but real science is rare. I am afraid I shall tire you, my dear friend, but the truth is, I know not of any one to whom I can address myself so freely as to my dear Clara: but if I have trespassed too much on your valuable time by my poor unworthy scrawl, I can only cast myself on your mercy, or beg that you will punish me by an answer as long as my letter: punish did I say, I retract the unworthy expression, it would be no punishment to receive a copious epistle from a dear, intelligent, superior-minded friend. Your letters, my dear, are all instruction and wisdom. I could learn more from one of your letters than from a volume. I am almost ashamed of what I am going to say, I hesitate whether I shall acknowledge my sin; yet confession is one-half of repentance. I must acknowledge--will you ever forgive me? The fact is, I was so very naughty as to let Tippetson have a sight of your letter; and I am sure you will forgive me, if you can but imagine the admiration and delight with which he read it. I know you have too much strength of mind to be accessible to flattery, else I would not mention the affair to you; but the truth is, that he was so charmed with it that he begged me on his knees to let him have a copy of it, of course omitting names, and he was pleased to say that no pen was so worthy of the honor of transcribing it as mine: for the young man is pleased to compliment my hand-writing rather more than it deserves. There, now you are near the end of your labor of reading, and I am near the end of my pleasure in writing: for a pleasure it is to write to such a dear, kind, intelligent soul as my Clara Rivolta. Farewell; let me soon have another invaluable treasure in a letter from your intellectual pen to delight and instruct your faithful and sincere Rebecca Henderson."