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by me at least, is to be done no otherwise
than by reading: to make sure of
having omitted none, I must on every occasion
have them before me in black and
white. Well but "Quersum hac tam
pertida tendiul Furcifer"? — why to this,
that it has come into my head that perhaps the best
if not the only good thing I could do for
my eyes (for if I were to hang myself for
melancholy they would be no great gainers
in the long run) would be f to go a begging
to you at Edinburgh for some of your company.
In that case the journey, while it
lasted would serve pretty effectually to keep my
eyes from poisoning themselves: and while
I was with you my tongue and my ears
might together perhaps make shift pretty
tolerably to keep them out of harm's way.
When I speak of going a begging to you for
your company, I would not be understood to
mean to go a begging to you for any thing
else. It would be too much to have vagrants
from England come to augment
the famine. Therefore if I were to come
I should insist upon it as a condition
sine quâ non that I should be permitted
to make satisfaction for the damage I
did. When I think of the social hours
we have spent together in former days,
and of the prospects we have in view,
I can not help fancying that if you happen
to have an odd corner in your house
that
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that would hold me you would not be adverse
to see me in it: but if I am miclature
and you wish to get off handsomely you have but to tell me that
you would be overjoy'd to see me, but
you cant think of acceding to any such
terms, and that the matter is at an end.
I mention this as a mere uncertainty: if I
do visit you it will be with reluctant steps
and with a heavy heart, as every hour
I spend with you at this time and at
that place I shall look upon as stolen
from those which I hope to spend with
you on a more agreeable occasion
elsewhere.
So I send you the original of my
Brother's letter, that is as much as I though
the frank would carry and as much as
I thought you could have any curios be at all interesting
to you. The rest consists of half a sheet
to Burkit, answers to a former letter of
mine and commissions for articles of dress &c
for him, and instructions for my own.
Adieu, ever yours J.B.
July 12.
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Identifier: | JB/540/086/002"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540. |
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1784-07-16 |
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540 |
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086 |
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002 |
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Correspondence/copy |
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Jeremy Bentham |
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