mathematics, or give him a scholarship or his degree. That he will
distinguish himself hereafter I have no doubt; but at present he is
engrossed by a passion (for it seems to me nothing less) which
occupies his mind and time, to the detriment, if not the exclusion,
of all other studies.

I feel almost ashamed of saying anything about myself, after the
two or three scoldings you have sent me of late. Perhaps while my
blue devils found vent in ridiculous verses, they did not much
matter; but their having prompted me lately to throw between seven
and eight hundred pages (about a year's work) into the fire, seems
to me now rather deplorable. You perhaps will say that the fire is
no bad place for seven or eight hundred pages of my manuscript; but
I had spent time and pains on them, and I think they should not
have been thrown away in a foolish fit of despondency. I am at
present not very well. I do not mean that I have any specific
illness, but headaches and side-aches, so that I am one moment in a
state of feverish excitement and the next nervous and low-spirited;
this is not a good account, but a true one.

I have no "new friends," dearest H----; perhaps because my dislike
to society makes me stupid and disagreeable when I am in it. I have
made one acquaintance, which might perhaps grow to a friendship
were it not that distance and its attendant inconveniences have
hitherto prevented my becoming more intimate with the lady I refer
to. She is a married woman; her name is Jameson. She is an
Irishwoman, and the authoress of the "Diary of an Ennuyee." I like
her very much; she is extremely clever; I wish I knew her better. I
have been to one dance and one or two dinners lately, but to tell
you the truth, dear H----, the old people naturally treat me after
my years, as a young person, and the young people (perhaps from my
self-conceit) seem to me stupid and uninteresting, and so, you see,
I do not like society. Cecilia Siddons is out of town at present,
and I have not seen her for some time. You may have heard that the
theatre has gained a lawsuit against Sinclair, the celebrated
singer, by a reversal of the former verdict in the case. We were
not even aware that such a process was going on, and when my father
came home and said, "We have won our cause,"