1To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, 14 January 1760 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Permit me to address you with the Compliment of the Season; not merely as a Compliment, but with a fervent sincerity. May this Year give you a happy sight of your Native Country, and of those dear Relations you left in it; and if there is anything else wanting to compleat your Felicity, May that be added! May you enjoy a long succession of Years, fraught...
2To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, [1760–1762] (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society You find I endeavoured to maintain an opinion which I imperfectly understood but I hope I shall be pardon’d when it is consider’d that the desire of obtaining intelligence and conviction was my motive. I believe I told you before that nothing had fallen under my observation to justify the opinion that men are carried to excellence in the exertion of their...
3To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, [1760–1762] (Franklin Papers)
Draft (incomplete): American Philosophical Society Your last Letter gave me great pleasure though the thoughts of having laid you under a necessity of writing it fill me with Confusion, for it was so unreasonable to draw you in to write a third Letter after you had condescendingly written two, that you ought to have punish’d me for it; but you have us’d the most effectual method to make me...
4To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, 6 June 1760 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society The Happiness I enjoy’d last friday has afforded me pleasing reflections for the week past. I attended with delight to your kind Instructions, and my highest Amusement ever since has been to recollect them. You obligingly condescended to satisfy my Curiosity about the Barometer, and by your explanation I clearly conceived the cause of the rise and fall of...
5To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, 23 June 1760 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society You who are no Stranger to the Feelings of Humanity will readily conceive the anxiety of my Mind while I thought my Friend in Danger: It is only such a Situation as I was then in that can make me neglect your Favours. Upon examining the Barometer after I receiv’d your Letter, I found a small Crevice where the piece of hollow wood which covers the Mercury is...
6To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, [August 1760 ?] (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society Since you are pleas’d to say you shall be glad of a Line from me I will find Leisure. In my Letter to my Mother, I mention’d I had a Question to ask you. It is this, What is the reason the Water at this place becomes warm by pumping tho it is not so at the spring? Pardon my Impertinence. Goodnatur’d persons have always more impos’d on them than others; yet...
7To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, 16 September 1760 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and draft: American Philosophical Society Such a Letter is indeed the highest Compliment. What you conclude it with I should think too far strain’d to be sincere if I did not flatter myself it proceeded from the warmth of your Affection, which makes you see Merit in me that I do not possess. It would be too great Vanity to think I deserve the Encomiums you give me, and it would be...
8To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, 13 January 1761 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society It is long since I troubled you with a Letter, which I am afraid you will impute to Indolence rather than Modesty. The Subject you are so condescending to enter upon with me would afford frequent matter of inquiry for me and give you too much trouble did I not suppress my inclination. The continual Engagements I am in prevent my spending as much time as I...
9To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, 27 April 1761 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: American Philosophical Society Had I never known you I could not have read those Writings you were so obliging to put into my Hands without entertaining the highest Esteem for you, but as I have had the Happiness of experiencing your Condescension and Candour Gratitude and Affection are join’d to my Esteem, and together fill my Heart with Sentiments I am not able to express. You assert...
10To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Stevenson, 19 May 1761 (Franklin Papers)
ALS and draft: American Philosophical Society In my last I communicated what occurr’d to me upon first reading your Letters. I receive so much Pleasure from what you say or write, and it is with such Facility I comprehend, or fancy I comprehend, what you mean, that attending to you is my Darling Amusement. I have not many Opportunities of conversing personally with you, but I make up that...