shall only observe, that this unfavourable chance was multiplied
against my infant existence. So feeble was my constitution, so
precarious my life, that, in the baptism of each of my brothers, my
father's prudence successively repeated my Christian name of Edward,
that, in case of the departure of the eldest son, this patronymic
appellation might be still perpetuated in the family.
--Uno avulso non deficit alter.
To preserve and to rear so frail a being, the most tender assiduity
was scarcely sufficient, and my mother's attention was somewhat
diverted by an exclusive passion for her husband, and by the
dissipation of the world, in which his taste and authority obliged
her to mingle. But the maternal office was supplied by my aunt,
Mrs. Catherine Porten; at whose name I feel a tear of gratitude
trickling down my cheek. A life of celibacy transferred her vacant
affection to her sister's first child; my weakness excited her pity;
her attachment was fortified by labour and success: and if there be
any, as I trust there are some, who rejoice that I live, to that
dear and excellent woman they must hold themselves indebted. Many
anxious and solitary days did she consume in the patient trial of
every mode of relief and amusement. Many wakeful nights did she sit
by my bedside in trembling expectation that each hour would be my
last. Of the various and frequent disorders of my childhood my own
recollection is dark. Suffice it to say, that while every
practitioner, from Sloane and Ward to the Chevalier Taylor, was
successively summoned to torture or relieve me, the care of my mind
was too frequently neglected for that of my health: compassion
always suggested an excuse for the indulgence of the master, or the
idleness of the pupil; and the chain of my education was broken, as
often as I was recalled from the school of learning to the bed of
sickness.