in his general habits, is no great talker; and, though he threw in
occasionally some shrewd and striking remarks; the conversation lay
principally between me and Mary. I, of consequence, heard her, very
frequently when I wished to hear Paine.

We touched on a considerable variety of topics, and particularly on the
characters and habits of certain eminent men. Mary, as has already been
observed, had acquired, in a very blameable degree, the practice of
seeing every thing on the gloomy side, and bestowing censure with a
plentiful hand, where circumstances were in any respect doubtful. I, on
the contrary, had a strong propensity, to favourable construction, and
particularly, where I found unequivocal marks of genius, strongly to
incline to the supposition of generous and manly virtue. We ventilated
in this way the characters of Voltaire and others, who have obtained
from some individuals an ardent admiration, while the greater number
have treated them with extreme moral severity. Mary was at last
provoked to tell me, that praise, lavished in the way that I lavished
it, could do no credit either to the commended or the commender. We
discussed some questions on the subject of religion, in which her
opinions approached much nearer to the received ones, than mine. As the
conversation proceeded, I became dissatisfied with the tone of my own
share in it. We touched upon all topics, without treating forcibly and
connectedly upon any. Meanwhile, I did her the justice, in giving an
account of the conversation to a party in which I supped, though I was
not sparing of my blame, to yield her the praise of a person of active
and independent thinking. On her side, she did me no part of what
perhaps I considered as justice.

We met two or three times in the course of the following year, but made
a very small degree of progress towards a cordial acquaintance.