“You have taken, I see, Cornano for your physician. Had I made the same experiment, I
should have been disposed to prefer a diet of roots, fruits, and esculent
plants to bread, which is so likely to be adulterated. There is as much
difference in the stomachs of men as in their tempers and faces; severe
abstinence is necessary for some, and others feed
| 314 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“You have made a wise determination for your son William, for I believe that medical studies are of all others the most unfavourable to the moral sense. Anatomical studies are so revolting, that men who carry any feeling to the pursuit are glad to have it seared as soon as possible. I do not remember ever in the course of my life to have been so shocked as by hearing Carlisle relate some bravados of young men in this state when he was a student himself.
“I wonder you should have any qualms at going to the
press, knowing, as you do, how capriciously at best, and in general with what
injustice and impudent partiality, praise or blame is awarded by contemporary
critics, and how absolutely worthless their decrees are in the court of
posterity, by which the merits of the case must be finally determined. I am so
certain that any subject which has amused your
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 315 |
“Remember me most kindly to your household.
