101 — To his Mother
Newstead Abbey, November 2, 1808.
Dear Mother
, — If you please, we will forget the things you mention. I have no desire to remember them. When my rooms are finished, I shall be happy to see you; as I tell but the truth, you will not suspect me of evasion. I am furnishing the house more for you than myself, and I shall establish you in it before I sail for India, which I expect to do in March, if nothing particularly obstructive occurs. I am now fitting up the
green
drawing-room; the red for a bed-room, and the rooms over as sleeping-rooms. They will be soon completed; — at least I hope so.
I wish you would inquire of Major Watson (who is an old Indian) what things will be necessary to provide for my voyage.
I
have already procured a friend to write to the Arabic Professor at Cambridge
, for some information I am anxious to procure. I can easily get letters from government to the ambassadors, consuls, etc., and also to the governors at Calcutta and Madras. I shall place my property and my will in the hands of trustees till my return, and I mean to appoint you one. From Hanson I have heard nothing — when I do, you shall have the particulars.
After all, you must own my project is not a bad one. If I do not travel now, I never shall, and all men should one day or other. I have at present no connections to keep me at home; no wife, or unprovided sisters, brothers, etc. I shall take care of you, and when I return I may possibly become a politician. A few years' knowledge of other countries than our own will not incapacitate me for that part. If we see no nation but our own, we do not give mankind a fair chance; — it is from
experience
, not books, we ought to judge of them. There is nothing like inspection, and trusting to our own senses.
Yours, etc.
Footnote 1:
The Rev. John Palmer, Fellow of St. John's, Adam's Professor of Arabic (1804-19).
