| Transcript or Index | Bedford Street
Nov.r 4. 1811
My dear Eleanor.
I have been intending for some
days to answer your Letter but my present si-
tuition with respect to my little darling has so
unhinged my mind, that I have not ^been^ nor do I now,
feel equal to enter upon it so fully as I could wish,
but as you are in haste, I may perhaps be able
to say enough to assist you __ My objection
to the passage in question in your 3.d Canto
arose from your having, (in my mind) entered
rather too minutely into that part of Botany
which relates to the sexual system. You might
have detailed much more of the science itself
without having made any allusions of the kind,
and which I think would have been more consistent
with public reading in a mixed society, the majority
of whom are young, and also with the delicacy of
the Authoress who will one day be announced.
I am pleased with the candour & freedom of your letter
and shall use the same myself, without fearing
to hurt you in any way. You are perfectly just
in your observations, ^respecting the Lecturers but [c/o] I have heard it observed
that perhaps scarcely any other man than Dr. Smith
could have entered into the science so much, ^&^ so tho-
-roughly, as he did, ^&^ with so much delicacy, so as not
to make it unpleasant to a mixed auditory; and
even he, was sometimes at fault, & embarrassed.
The error, with respect to yourself, my dear
Eleanor, arises from, what all who know you
intimately, prize as one of your chief orna-
=ments; I mean, the purity of your mind &
thoughts. I feel it an awkward subject to
write upon explicitly myself, but I think
you cannot be so totally ignorant of ^the^ intercourse
that must subsist between the sexes, not to feel
that all such allusions must carry an appearance
of indelicacy, and in my mind that is much
heightened when connected with inanimate things
as plants may in some degree be considered.
I have just thrown a few ideas together
as they have occurred to me and am sorry
I am prevented entering more into the subject
but, I may perhaps resume it, if you
are not satisfied, as you say you shall
require weighty arguments. I don’t care
for your Lark Hall laugh!
Ever your affect.te sister
Sarah Henrietta Kay.
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