"Our head master was more nearly a perfect human being than any other man
that I have ever met with. Even the worst-tempered boys among us ended in
loving him. Under his encouragement, and especially to please him, I won
every prize that industry, intelligence, and good conduct could obtain;
and I rose, at an unusually early age, to be the head boy in the first
class. When I was old enough to be removed to the University, and when
the dreadful day of parting arrived, I fainted under the agony of leaving
the teacher--no! the dear friend--whom I devotedly loved. There must
surely have been some good in me at that time. What has become of it now?

"The years followed each other--and I was Fortune's spoilt child still.

"Under adverse circumstances, my sociable disposition, my delight in the
society of young people of my own age, might have exposed me to serious
dangers in my new sphere of action. Happily for me, my father consulted a
wise friend, before he sent me to Cambridge. I was entered at one of the
smaller colleges; and I fell, at starting, among the right set of men.
Good examples were all round me. We formed a little club of steady
students; our pleasures were innocent; we were too proud and too poor to
get into debt. I look back on my career at Cambridge, as I look back on
my career at school, and wonder what has become of my better self.

III

"During my last year at Cambridge, my father died.

"The profession which he had intended that I should follow was the Bar. I
believed myself to be quite unfit for the sort of training imperatively
required by the Law; and my mother agreed with me. When I left the
University, my own choice of a profession pointed to the medical art, and