“It is hardly necessary for me to inform you that the
contents of your letter were highly agreeable to me. You are almost the only
person whose judgment is valuable to me on speculative points, and on that
account I feel continually the necessity of your sanction. On the subject of
friendship, no person ought to think with so much charity of others or to speak
with greater diffidence than myself. I was not satisfied with the propriety of
my last letter, though, as it has happily led to an explanation agreeable to
both of us, I cannot now repent of it. Perhaps I am incapable of friendship—my
habits and disposition are certainly so unfavourable as to require a
concurrence of fortunate circumstances for its birth and support.
‘Sickness,’ says Johnson, ‘makes scoundrels of us all,’ it
impairs and destroys sympathy. But feebleness of constitution and spirits is
not the only obstacle; I have to contend with a timidity of disposition which
has long
| 312 | WILLIAM GODWIN |
