that went up from a single country parish. Ask Mama and Selina if
they do not now admit my argument with regard to the superior
advantages of the Scotch over the English peasantry.

As to my examination preparations, I will if you please give you
a sketch of my plan. On Monday, the day on which the examination
subjects are given out, I shall begin. My first performance will
be my verses and my declamation. I shall then translate the Greek
and Latin. The first time of going over I shall mark the passages
which puzzle me, and then return to them again. But I shall have
also to rub up my Mathematics, (by the bye, I begin the second
book of Euclid to-day,) and to study whatever History may be
appointed for the examination. I shall not be able to avoid
trembling, whether I know my subjects or not. I am however
intimidated at nothing but Greek. Mathematics suit my taste,
although, before I came, I declaimed against them, and asserted
that, when I went to College, it should not be to Cambridge. I am
occupied with the hope of lecturing Mama and Selina upon
Mathematics, as I used to do upon Heraldry, and to change Or, and
Argent, and Azure, and Gules, for squares, and points, and
circles, and angles, and triangles, and rectangles, and
rhomboids, and in a word "all the pomp and circumstance" of
Euclid. When I come home I shall, if my purse is sufficient,
bring a couple of rabbits for Selina and Jane.

Your affectionate son,

THOMAS B. MACAULAY.

It will be seen that this passing fondness for mathematics soon