of truth; but the embarras augmenteth mightily if another avowal be expedient. However, having to leave town for an indefinite space, and reflecting that wishes "had not a body in them" to make confession by proxy, I racked up my resolution to the highest degree of desperation, and with stammered accent and in paralytic phrase besought to inform him of-thatwhich he had read (if outward signs of things within could be read) connectedly, from alpha to omega, and of which he flattered his discernment he could have given me the earliest information!"

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He was a bachelor, but he loved-the poets and his godchild in particular, all mankind in general. His conversation, when it turned not on practical subjects, was poetic in conception, and often poetic in expression, and was enriched and stimulated by an exuberancy of quotation. It is some of such that I shall endeavour, from crude and hasty notes, to transcribe. Where there may appear intelligence, the praise be his; where insipidity, the reproach be mine: and this must, I fear, frequently occur-for charms of voice, impressiveness of gesture, and eloquence of eye, are efficient auxiliaries to any theme-too subtle, alas! to be "turned into shape" by any but a "poet's

B

pen;" and even by that inspired instrument, are seldom in strict fidelity transfixed on the poet's page.

It only remains, among preliminaries, to relate how I became acquainted with the individual I have very imperfectly described; and here a fitting occasion presents itself (at least, in my opinion, which I submit with deference,) for some elucidation of the first person in the singular number in this narration. My dramatis persona are limited, and the expediency of personal portraiture will consequently, and perhaps fortunately, be unfrequent. Nevertheless, where a prolonged intercourse is probable, it is preferable to foreknow something of one's camarade;-nay, it is desirable, though he be but the convive of a festal hour, or the companion in a stage-coach.-In steamcarriages such prescience is a matter of indifference, -so is a pleasant prospect and a brawling brook,— everything, in short, except the bursting of an engine or sepulchral symptoms in a tunnel.

Be it then known unto thee, friendly Reader, by these presents, which come greeting, that the part I was to act upon the stage of life (provided I should retain an essential principle,) was appointed for me ere I had emerged from swaddling-clothes. At what precise period in the present century I made my début

in a part which, like the lion's (allotted to Snug*), is done "extempore, for it is nothing but roaring," it is not pleasant to communicate. A desire to avoid divulging the exact antiquity of the chronicle commenced by Time coëval with our birth, is a delicate refinement now so generally displayed, that a definite reference to the calendar is out of date, and, indeed, indicates eccentricity in a writer. The cause may be questionable—whether this exquisite sensibility be fostered by the increase of infant seminaries sanctioned by an enlightened legislature, or by the diffusion of liberal arts and sciences, by ultra-liberal hawkers promulgated upon the lowest possible terms on the mercurial side of nothing-the cause, I repeat, may be questionable, but this effect is undeniable, that an antipathy to reveal with precision the passage of Time over our heads, is becoming universal as intelligence. It seems to be a resolution of the day, that if the mighty Hunter's† reckless Whipper-in will ride rough-shod over this corporeal compound, his defacements shall not be noisily blazoned but rather sighed over secretly. So that (out of life-insurance offices) the utmost admission made consists of a plaintive

* Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 1.

"Death, that mighty Hunter!"-Night Thoughts.

7

iteration of the Patriarch's lament-"few and evil have the days of the years of my life been."

I borrow from the Prophet the paternal, maternal, and grand-maternal decree concerning myself: here it is briefly," To the law!" I grew up in the dangerous and isolated position of an only son-not dangerous because isolated, but because idolised. I always foresee fearingly the fate of an only son— shudderingly if there be a grandam in existence. A unique" pledge," in such a case, is more hapless and more to be lamented over than the least-likely to be redeemed at a pawnbroker's. To every volition of his will there is regard-to every appeal, assent; and how can either teeth or temper maintain a purity against indulgences, dispensed with freer hand than that of Pope of Rome in direst poverty! Much less to be expected then, from such matriculation, is any premature penchant for those interesting studies and that agreeable discipline adjudged by Lord Eldon to be essential to such as hope to live by the law.

My forensic future was proverbial in my boyhood, and numberless were the exhortations to docility and studiousness to which it supplied a text. "I heard them, but I heeded not." The pedagogue to whose training I was entrusted at a later stage, bewailed my

"mania for wood-walking and vagaries in verse, which for the most part were vanity, and would doubtlessly end in vexation of spirit;" but was too tender-hearted to chastise, and, like Southey's, 66 never consumed birch enough in his vocation to make a besom.” How strongly some oddities protest against oblivion! Poor M-! never shall I forget the “ anger, insignificantly fierce," which, when it distorted thy patient features, was certain to defeat its purpose, provoking to risibility, with difficulty suppressed, the culprit it was intended to daunt. Nor ever can I fail to remember those quiet bubblings from thy natural fount of humour, whose current the cares of a contentious wife and seven clamorous bantlings had not sufficed entirely to dam.

M— astounded and delighted me a few weeks ago, by presenting himself at my chambers. London has always a choice collection of comicalities in human shape, or claiming a kindred with humanity, and the worthy dominie of D— (in the far west) was no mean metropolitan marvel during his sojourn in the vast city, "whose streets," quoth he, " are verily interminable, presenting a changeless perspective of sooty dwellings, dimly visible through an atmosphere of smoke." M. was an amateur of lowly pretensions on the violin ; and