Mr. Macaulay's deep anxiety for his son's welfare sometimes
induced him to lend too ready an ear to busybodies, who informed
him of failings in the boy which would have been treated more
lightly, and perhaps more wisely, by a less devoted father. In
the early months of 1814 he writes as follows, after hearing the
tale of some guest of Mr. Preston whom Tom had no doubt
contradicted at table in presence of the assembled household.

London: March 4, 1814.

My dear Tom,--In taking up my pen this morning a passage in
Cowper almost involuntarily occurred to me. You will find it at
length in his "Conversation."

"Ye powers who rule the Tongue, if such there are,
And make colloquial happiness your care,
Preserve me from the thing I dread and hate,
A duel in the form of a debate.
Vociferated logic kills me quite.
A noisy man is always in the right."

You know how much such a quotation as this would fall in with my
notions, averse as I am to loud and noisy tones, and self-
confident, overwhelming, and yet perhaps very unsound arguments.
And you will remember how anxiously I dwelt upon this point while
you were at home. I have been in hopes that this half-year would
witness a great change in you in this respect. My hopes, however,
have been a little damped by something which I heard last week
through a friend, who seemed to have received an impression that
you had gained a high distinction among the young gentlemen at