Yours most faithfully,

THOMAS B. MACAULAY.

This votary of city life was still two months short of completing
his fifteenth year!

Aspenden Hall: August 23, 1815.

My dear Mama,--You perceive already in so large a sheet, and so
small a hand, the promise of a long, a very long letter, longer,
as I intend it, than all the letters which you send in a half-
year together. I have again begun my life of sterile monotony,
unvarying labour, the dull return of dull exercises in dull
uniformity of tediousness. But do not think that I complain.

My mind to me a kingdom is,
Such perfect joy therein I find
As doth exceed all other bliss
That God or nature hath assigned.

Assure yourself that I am philosopher enough to be happy,--I
meant to say not particularly unhappy,--in solitude; but man is
an animal made for society. I was gifted with reason, not to
speculate in Aspenden Park, but to interchange ideas with some
person who can understand me. This is what I miss at Aspenden.
There are several here who possess both taste and reading; who
can criticise Lord Byron and Southey with much tact and "savoir
du metier." But here it is not the fashion to think. Hear what I