I owe you my most cordial acknowledgments for the very friendly letter with which you favoured me last summer by Mr. Smeathman. Your ingenious M. S. concerning the cause of the severe cold in the Winter of 1783/4, I delivered to our Philosophical Society; and it is ordered by the Committee of Papers to be inserted in a Vol. of Memoirs, which is now in the Press. I am commissioned to return the thanks of the Society to you, for this communication; to request your future correspondence; and to acquaint you that we have honoured our Institution by electing you an extraordinary Member. The gentleman who took charge of your Diploma, conveys with it a little Tract of mine on the Perceptive Power of Vegetables to the whimsical doctrine contained in this jeu d’esprit you will readily believe I can hardly be a convert, yet the further we carry our researches into the comparative nature of animals and vegetables, the more shall we find that they elucidate the aconomy of each other and reciprocally discover principle’s which are common to both. Late observations have evinced that animals have the power of resisting, to a certain point such degrees of heat or cold as are injunious to them. It is obvious that vegetables must be end   with the same faculty; because they are found to flourish in climates, where the circumambient air varies considerably from their proper temperature. And the fact has been fully illustrated by Mr. John Hunter’s Experiments.

Your very kind acceptance of the Volume of Moral and Literary Dissertations which I sent you by Mr. Ths. White, afforded me the sincerest satisfaction: And the honour you did me by perusing the whole of it before you slept is more flattering to me than the approbation of a hundred critics.

I have lately received a very valuable present from my friend Dr. Watson Br. of Landaff. It is a collection of Tracts on the evidences of natural and revealed religion &c, selected from the Works of Churchmen, Laymen, and Dissenters, systematically arranged, in 6 vols. 3 vo. so as to form a complete Library for the Junior and inferior clergy. I am charmed with the candour, the liberality and the spirit of Catholicism which his Lordship has avowed with the utmost energy and freedom, in his Preface. The true christian charity of a Bishop thus manifested will promote the interest of the Church of England far more honourably and permanently than Creeds, Tests, or Anathemas. He has proved himself the generous minister of peace and if his brethren follow so laudable an example, by offering the Olive branch, instead of brandishing the sword or throwing down the gauntlet, I hope and trust an end will be put to theological contention and hostility.

Is there any prospect of your revisiting England? Few events would give me more delight than to have an opportunity of assuring you in person, with what cordial esteem and respect, I have the honour to be, Dear Sir, Your obliged friend and Servant.