In a few days I hope we shall see you. I long to see you again, and to
hear your voice, and to receive from you those kind looks and kind
words, which custom cannot stale. I believe that the more variety people
see, the more they become attached to their first and natural friends. I
had taken a large sheet of paper to tell you some of the wonders we have
seen in our nine days' stay in Edinburgh, but my father has wisely
advised me to content myself with a small sheet, as I am to have the joy
of talking to you so soon, and may then say volumes in the same time
that I could write pages. I cannot express the pleasure we have felt in
being introduced to Henry's delightful society of friends here, both
those he has chosen for himself and those who have chosen him. Old and
young, grave and gay, join in speaking of him with a degree of affection
and esteem that is most touching and gratifying. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart
[Footnote: Mr. and Mrs. Dugald Stewart. As Professor at the University
of Edinburgh, Mr. Stewart gave those lectures which Sir James Mackintosh
said "breathed the love of virtue into whole generations of pupils."]
surpassed all that I had expected, and I had expected much. Mr. Stewart
is said to be naturally or habitually grave and reserved, but towards us
he has broken through his habits or his nature, and I never conversed
with any one with whom I was more at ease. He has a grave, sensible
face, more like the head of Shakespear than any other head or print that
I can remember. I have not heard him lecture; no woman can go to the
public lectures here, and I don't choose to go in men's or boys'
clothes, or in the pocket of the Irish giant, though he is here and well
able to carry me. Mrs. Stewart has been for years wishing in vain for
the pleasure of hearing one of her husband's lectures. She is just the
sort of woman you would like, that you would love. I do think it is
impossible to know her without loving her; indeed, she has been so kind
to Henry, that it would be doubly impossible (an Irish impossibility) to
us. Yet you know people do not always love because they have received
obligations. It is an additional proof of her merit, and of her powers
of pleasing, that she makes those who _are_ under obligations to her
forget that they are bound to be grateful, and only remember that they
think her good and agreeable.
_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH (the second sister in the family of the
name).