John Aikin, Stoke
Newington, to Mary Hays, 9 St. Georges Place, Camberwell, 20 June [1804].1
Dear Madam,
The success of the
work you propose will, of course, depend upon the manner of its execution, as
there can be no novelty in the matter. I believe there have been some upon a
similar plan, though not in dialogue.2 The “Annales de la Vertu” by Mad. de Genlis3 is meant to instruct by historical example, & contains some good writing, though the spirit is far
from being truly philosophical. That work will be worth your seeing, and you
may also consult one entitled (I think)
“Beauties of History.”4 Biographical dictionaries will also suggest characters
& facts. I may recommend that in which I am engaged, as far as it goes.5 The
French “Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique”6 will supply abundance of content &
you may have recourse to the histories of the countries to which they belong
for minuter information.
We shall be happy
to see you at Newington after our return from a tour of two or three weeks
which we propose to begin next Monday.
With respect to
the business with Mr Phillips, I have no
reason to doubt that the work will really be printed, if it is not so already;
for he has desired me to let him have the ^your^ manuscript prepared, as I undertook to do it, for the press, which has accordingly been
delivered to him. When printed, I shall get him to settle the balance according
to the original conditions.
I remain, Dear
Madam, with sincere respect,
Your faithful friend & servnt
J. Aikin
Stoke Newington
June 20th
Address: Miss Hays | 9 St George’s Place | Camberwell
Postmark: 20 June 1804, 7 o’clock
1 Misc. Ms.
2148, Pforzheimer Collection, NYPL; Brooks, Correspondence 338-39.
2 Reference here is to Historical Dialogues for Young Persons,
3 vols (London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul’s Churchyard; and J. Mawman,
Poultry, 1806-07). The interval between the letter and the eventual date of
publication indicating the considerable time Hays put into these volumes. They
would prove her most successful work during her lifetime, continuing to be
printed and widely sold by Mawmen into the early 1820s.
3 De Genlis’s Les annals de la vertu was translated by Elizabeth Mary James and
published in Bath in 1794 as A Selection
from the Annals of Virtue.
4 William Dodd, The Beauties of History (London: Vernor & Hood, 1795; 2nd
ed., 1800).
5 General Biography: or
Lives, Critical and Historical, of the Most Eminent Persons of all Ages,
Countries, Conditions, and Professions, Arranged According to Alphabetical
Order. Chiefly Composed by John Aikin, M.D. and the late Rev. William Enfield,
LL. D. (London: G. G and J. Robinson [. . .], 1799-1815).
6 Nouveau dictionnaire
d'histoire naturelle, applquée aux arts
appeared in France in 1803; the first English translation appeared in 1810.