whole life to his service? My thoughts would fain recur at
intervals to my former delights; but I am now on my guard to
restrain and keep them in. I know now where they ought to
concentre, and with the blessing of God, they shall there all tend.

"My next publication of poems will be solely religious. I shall
not destroy those of a different nature, which now lie before me;
but they will, most probably, sleep in my desk, until, in the good
time of my great Lord and Master, I shall receive my passport from
this world of vanity. I am now bent on a higher errand than that
of the attainment of poetical fame; poetry, in future, will be my
relaxation, not my employment.--Adieu to literary ambition! 'You
do not aspire to be prime minister,' said Mr. Robinson; 'you covet
a far higher character--to be the humblest among those who
minister to their Maker.'"

To the arguments of his friends on the impolicy of quitting a
profession to which he had given so much of his time, and on the
obstacles to the attainment of his wishes, he was impenetrable.
His employers generously offered to cancel his articles as soon as
he could show that his resources were likely to support him at the
University. Friends arose as they became necessary, and more than
one or two persons exerted themselves to promote his views; but
his principal reliance was on the sale of a little volume of
Poems, which, at the suggestion of Mr. Capel Lofft, he prepared
for the press.

The history of an author's first book is always interesting, and
Kirke White's was attended with unusual incidents. A novice in
literature often imagines that it is important his work should be