their house, and enjoying still more their conversation when alone.

I shall never forget the charms of our little frugal suppers, at which none but us three were present; but where we never were at a loss for topics that went to the hearts of all of us: where each spoke without the least reserve, nay, where each thought aloud, and was not only happy in himself, but happy from the happiness of those most dear to him. Our happiness, indeed, was such that it could hardly be increased; but, if not increased, we might, at least, reckon upon its duration; the sources of our enjoyment were in ourselves, not dependant upon the gifts of fortune, and not subject to the tyranny of opinion. We were young; myself, indeed, but just of age: and many years, in the enjoyment of the purest friendship and affection, seemed to be in store for us. Vain, however, were these expectations! our happiness was as transient as it was pure.

NARRATIVE OF HIS EARLY LIFE, CONTINUED BY HIMSELF IN 1813.

1778-1789.

Tanhurst*, August 28. 1813.

AFTER an interval of seventeen years, I am about to resume the task of writing my life; a task undertaken in very different circumstances, and with very different views, from those with which I now resume it. When I began to set down the few events of my unimportant history, I was living in great privacy, I was unmarried, and it seemed in a very high degree probable that I should always remain so. My life was wasting away with few very lively enjoyments, and without the prospect that my existence could ever have much influence on the happiness of others; or that I should leave behind me any trace by which, twenty years after I was dead, it could be known that ever I had lived. But since that period, and within the last few years, I have been in situations that were more conspicuous; and though it has never been my good fortune to render any important service, either to my fellow-creatures or to my country, yet, for a short period of time, at least, some degree of public attention has been fixed on me. It is, however, with no view to the public that I am induced to preserve any memorial of my life; but wholly from

* A country house, in Surrey, on the side of Leith Hill. -- Ep.

private considerations. It is in my domestic life that the most important changes have taken place. For the last fifteen years, my happiness has been the constant study of the most excellent of wives; a woman in whom a strong understanding, the noblest and most elevated sentiments, and the most courageous virtue, are united to the warmest affection, and to the utmost delicacy of mind and tenderness of heart; and all these intellectual perfections are graced and adorned by the most splendid beauty that human eyes ever beheld. She has borne to me seven children, who are living; and in all of whom I persuade myself that I discover the promise of their, one day, proving themselves not unworthy of such a mother. Some of them are of so tender an age that I can hardly hope that I shall live till their education is finished, and much less that I shall have the happiness to see them established in life; and of some it is not improbable that I may be taken from them while they are yet of such tender years that, as they advance in life, they may retain but little recollection of their father. To these, and even to my dear wife, if, as I devoutly wish, she should many years survive me, it may be a source of great satisfaction to turn over these pages; to learn or to recollect what I was, what I have done, with whom I have lived, and to whom I have been known. Such is the information that these pages will afford, and they will, I fear, afford nothing more. Of instruction there is but little that they can supply: what to shun or what to pursue, is that of which a life, so little chequered with events as mine, can hardly

present any very striking lessons. I have been in no trying situations; the force of my character has never been called forth; I have fallen into no very egregious faults, and I have had the good fortune to escape those situations which generally lead to them; but, from the pious affection which may have been instilled into my children's minds, they may set a considerable value, and take a lively interest in facts which, to the rest of mankind, must appear altogether insipid and indifferent. It is, therefore, to enjoy conversation with my children, at a time when I shall be incapable of conversing with any one; and to live with them, as it were, long after I shall have descended into the grave, that I proceed with this narrative of my life. It is surrounded by these children in their happy infant state; cheered with the little sallies of their wit; exhilarated with their spirits; become youthful, as it were, by their youth; and transported at sometimes discovering in them the dawnings of their mother's virtues; it is in the repose of a short period of leisure after unusual fatigues in my profession; it is in a fine season, in the midst of a beautiful country, with some of the richest and most luxuriant scenes of nature spread before me: it is in the midst of all these sources of enjoyment and of happiness, that I sit down to this pleasing employment.

Writing of times so long past, my memory may sometimes fail me (for till within the last seven years I have never kept any journal, but while I was travelling); it can be, however, only in trifles that it can fail; and even as to matters the most

trifling, I shall endeavour most strictly and religiously to adhere to truth.

When my former narrative broke off, I think (for I have it not at this moment before me) I was serving Mr. Lally as his articled clerk. I had never, during my clerkship, thought very seriously of engaging in the line of the profession for which that noviciate was intended to qualify me. To distinguish myself in some literary career was the chimerical hope which I had long indulged; and I had once even supposed that I might become illustrious as a poet; but this delusion was not of long duration. The important moment, however, had arrived when it was necessary to come to a decision, upon the prudence or folly of which my future fate was to depend. The encouragement I had received from Roget had very strongly inclined me not only to continue in the profession, but to look up to a superior rank in it; and, although I had yet taken no step whatever towards such an object, I could not, now that it was requisite to decide, persuade myself to decide against it. With the exception, however, of Roget, I believe most of my friends thought it a hazardous and imprudent step; Mr. Lally deemed it so in a very high degree. He did not, indeed, undervalue my talents, though I believe he did. not rate them very high; but he thought my diffidence invincible, and such as must alone oppose an insurmountable bar to my success. He had, however, the generosity not to urge his objections with the force with which he felt them. He thought himself interested in my decision, since,