79 
sion. We became acquainted at Edinburgh. We 
must soon be separated, and I shall be afraid to 
form another so close connexion.” 
The subjoined letter is addressed to the friend 
here spoken of. 
Dear Batty, 
You are, perhaps, like me, too apt to regret past 
pleasures, and neglect present ones. This disposi- 
tion should not be too much indulged; for when 
the object of our regret is really important, our di- 
stress might be increased to an intolerable degree. 
You, my dear friend, have in your own power an 
inestimable source of happiness, in the amiable sen- 
sibility which you possess in so eminent a degree ; 
yet this choice gift of Heaven may occasion its pos- 
sessor as much misery without the direction of rea- 
son, as it would happiness with it. 
It is a most discouraging thing to a young man 
entering into life,—his heart, without reserve or 
suspicion, overflowing with the “milk of human 
kindness,”—to be told by those who have gone 
before him, that his ideas of friendship, love, ho- 
nour, are merely romantic, and not to be realized 
in a commerce with the world; that there, self-in- 
terest, ambition, avarice, and lust, reign with abso- 
lute sway; that those feelings which (if he be not 
a villain) have chiefly contributed to his happiness 
hitherto, must now be restrained by prudence, and 
be perfectly obedient to the dictates of interest and 
worldly advantage. They tell him, that now 
“The wild romance of life is done ; 
Its real history is begun.” 
