mes have great
pleasure in talking; but if I had to talk, even upon the subjects that
interest me most, as much as I have to write in the discharge of my
daily correspondence, I should die of exhaustion, and fancy, too, that I
was guilty of a reprehensible waste of time. That I am doing what gives
my friends pleasure, and is but their due, alone prevents my thinking my
letter-writing a waste of time. As therefore it is not to me, as to you,
a pleasurable occupation in itself, I do not think it can be compared
with "reading Shakespeare, Schiller," or indeed any book worth reading.
The exercise of justice towards, and consideration for, others is a form
of virtue, and _therefore_ letter-writing is, in some cases, a good
employment of time.

I have a desire for mental culture, only equalled by my sense of my
profound ignorance, and the feeling of how little knowledge is attained,
even by scholars leading the most active and assiduously studious
existences.

My delight in my own superficial miscellaneous reading is not so much
for the information I retain (for I forget, or at least seem to do so,
much of what I read), as for the sense of mental activity produced at
the time, by reading; and though I forget much, something doubtless
remains, upon the whole.

Knowledge, upon any subject, is an enchanting _curiosity_ to me; fine
writing on elevated subjects is a source of the liveliest pleasure to
me; in all kinds of good poetry I find exquisite enjoyment; and not
having a particle of satisfaction in letter-writing for its own sake, I
cannot admit any parallel between reading and writing (whatever I might
think of arithmetic). I have sometimes fancied, too, that but for the
amount of letter-writing I perform, I might (perhaps) write carefully
and satisfactorily something that might (perhaps) be worth reading,
something that might (perhaps) in some degree approach my standard of a
tolerably good literary production--some novel or play, some work of
imagination--and that my much letter-writing is against this; but I dare
say this is a mistaken notion, and that I should never, under any
circumstances, write anything worth anything.

I have always desired much to cultivate the accomplishment of drawing;
it is an admirable sedative--a soothing, absorbing, and satisfactory
pursuit; but I have never found time to follow it up steadily, though
snatching at it now and then according as opportunity favored me. I give
but little tim