e intimately acquainted with the Classics, and to acquire some
of the modern languages: by permission too, or rather recommendation, of
the Rector and Fellows, I also undertook the care of a few pupils: this
removed much of my anxiety respecting my future means of support. I have
a heartfelt pleasure in mentioning this indulgence of my college: it
could arise from nothing but the liberal desire inherent, I think, in
the members of both our Universities, to encourage every thing that
bears the most distant resemblance to talents: for I had no claims on
them from any particular exertions.

The lapse of many months had now soothed, and tranquillized my mind, and
I once more returned to the translation to which a wish to serve a young
man surrounded with difficulties, had induced a number of respectable
characters to set their names: but alas, what a mortification! I now
discovered, for the first time, that my own inexperience, and the advice
of my too, too partial friend had engaged me in a work, for the due
execution of which, my literary attainments were by no means sufficient.
Errors and misconceptions appeared in every page. I had, indeed, caught
something of the spirit of Juvenal, but his meaning had frequently
escaped me, and I saw the necessity of a long and painful revision,
which would carry me far beyond the period fixed for the appearance of
the work. Alarmed at the prospect, I instantly resolved (if not wisely,
yet I trust honestly) to renounce the publication for the present.

In pursuance of this resolution, I wrote to my friend in the country
(the Rev. Servington Savery) requesting him to return the subscription
money in his hands, to the subscribers. He did not approve of my plan;
nevertheless he promised, in a letter which now lies before me, to
comply with it: and, in a subsequent one, added that he had already
begun to do so.

For myself, I also made several repayments; and trusted a sum of money
to make others with a fellow collegian, who, not long after, fell by his
own hands in the presence of his father. But there were still some whose
abode could not be discovered, and others, on whom to press the taking
back of eight shillings would neither be decent nor respectful: even
from these I ventured to flatter myself that I should find pardon, when
on some future day I presented them with the work (which I was still
secretly determined to complete) rendered more worthy of their
patronage, and increased,