Miss J. Austen to the Countess of Morley.
'MADAM,--Accept my thanks for the honour of your note, and for your kind disposition in favour of "Emma." In my present state of doubt as to her reception in the world, it is particularly gratifying to me to receive so early an assurance of your Ladyship's approbation. It encourages me to depend on the same share of general good opinion which "Emma's" predecessors have experienced, and to believe that I have not yet, as almost every writer of fancy does sooner or later, overwritten myself.
'I am, Madam,
'Your obliged and faithful Servt.
'J. AUSTEN.
'December 31, 1815.'
