I am practically industrious--painstaking, a workman to execute with perseverance and labour--but besides this there is a love for the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore.

But to return to dearer considerations.
Shall I meet you again, after having traversed immense seas, and returned by the most southern cape of Africa or America?
I dare not expect such success, yet I cannot bear to look on the reverse of the picture.

Continue for the present to write to me by every opportunity: I may receive your letters on some occasions when I need them most to support my spirits.

I love you very tenderly.

Remember me with affection, should you never hear from me again.
Your affectionate brother, Robert Walton.