View things as they are, and not as they may be magnified through thy teeming fancy.

I have seen thee look at an old gravel pit, till thou madest out capes, and bays, and inlets, crags and precipices, and the whole stupendous scenery of the Isle of Feroe, in what was, to all ordinary eyes, a mere horse-pond.
Besides, did I not once find thee gazing with respect at a lizard, in the attitude of one who looks upon a crocodile?
Now this is, doubtless, so far a harmless exercise of your imagination; for the puddle cannot drown you, nor the Lilliputian alligator eat you up.

But it is different in society, where you cannot mistake the character of those you converse with, or suffer your fancy to exaggerate their qualities, good or bad, without exposing yourself not only to ridicule, but to great and serious inconveniences.

Keep guard, therefore, on your imagination, my dear Darsie; and let your old friend assure you, it is the point of your character most pregnant with peril to its good and generous owner.
Adieu! let not the franks of the worthy peer remain unemployed; above all, SIS MEMOR MEI.

A.F.
LETTER III DARSIE LATIMER TO ALAN FAIRFORD SHEPHERD'S BUSH.
I have received thine absurd and most conceited epistle.