TO MRS. BURR.
Philadelphia, 16th February, 1793.
A line of recollection will, I am sure, be more acceptable than silence. I consider myself as largely in your debt, and shall of necessity remain so.
You have heard me speak of a Miss Woolstonecraft, who has written something on the French revolution; she has also written a book entitled "Vindication of the rights of Woman." I had heard it spoken of with a coldness little calculated to excite attention; but as I read with avidity and prepossession every thing written by a lady, I made haste to procure it, and spent the last night, almost the whole of it, in reading it. Be assured that your sex has in her an able advocate. It is, in my opinion, a work of genius. She has successfully adopted the style of Rousseau's Emilius; and her comment on that work, especially what relates to female education, contains more good sense than all the other criticisms upon him which I have seen put together. I promise myself much pleasure in reading it to you.
Is it owing to ignorance or prejudice that I have not yet met a single person who had discovered or would allow the merit of this work?
Three mails are in arrear; that of Tuesday is the last which has arrived. I am impatient to know how writing agrees with you. Pray let me hear, from day to day, the progress of your cure. Most affectionately yours,
A. BURR.
TO MRS. BURR.
Philadelphia, 18th February, 1793.
Just what I apprehended, I find, has taken place. Three sheets were too much for a first attempt. It will, I fear, discourage you, if not disable you from more moderate experiments. Yet I will hope to receive by this day's mail at least one line, announcing your progressive recovery, under your own hand.