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To the French Institute
Original draft by Sir Joseph Banks of his letter to the National Institute of Science: see annexed lithograph
Jan. 21 1802
Messrs.
I beg of you to offer the National Institut my most grateful thanks for the honor I have Receivd in being Elected a Forein assiate of that learned & distinguishd body
I request you also that you will to assure my much respectd associates that I consider this mark of their esteem as the most gracefull as well as the most dignified Literary honor I possibly can Receive To be the first Elected of the first class of the First Literary Society in the world is more than my utmost ambition ever Permitted me to hope The attainment of this honor is therefore a Gratification for which I cannot be too grateful thankfull to the Society who have conferrd it or to the nation of which they are the Literary Representatives a nation which throughout all the tremendous terrible convulsions of its late tremendous Revolution I have never ceasd to esteem well knowing that in the war period good men were still there who could in time resume their superior stations & Replace justice virtue & Truth in the Hearts of their Country men