Mary Berry, letter of 26 December 1799: 'What little I could read during two days and part of two nights has been Mercier's "Nouveau Paris", a sort of continuation of his former "Tableau de Paris". This last, in six vols. is one of the most stupid, unclearly thought, ridiculous books I ever saw, and yet I read it, not without entertainment and instruction [...] Of a very different nature is a little book I have lately read over again for the third or fourth time, -- I mean, Mackintosh's accounts of his proposed lectures on the Law of Nature and Nations. Such a compendious syllabus of all the leading principles of truth and virtue I never met with! I mentioned it to you last year, I think, when I first got it.'