"The most fatal of Pandora's train,"

began now to excite the anxiety of his family. Illness was, however,
forgotten in the realization of the hope dearest to his heart. The
exertions of his friends proved successful at a time when all
expectations had vanished; and by their united efforts it was
resolved that he should become a sizer of St. John's College,
Cambridge, his brother Neville, his mother, and a benevolent
individual, whose name is not mentioned, having agreed to contribute
to support him. It appears, that if he had not succeeded in that
object, he intended to have joined the society of orthodox dissenters,
for which purpose he underwent an examination. Though his attainments
and character proved satisfactory on that occasion, his volume of
Poems rose in judgment against him, and nothing but the approbation
Mr. Southey had expressed of them prevented his work from being
considered a disqualification for the ministry. His feelings on
the prospect of entering the Church are described with great force
in his letter, dated in April, 1804.

"Most fervently do I return thanks to God for this providential
opening: it has breathed new animation into me, and my breast
expands with the prospect of becoming the minister of Christ where
I most desired it; but where I almost feared all probability of
success was nearly at an end. Indeed, I had begun to turn my
thoughts to the dissenters, as people of whom I was destined, not
by choice, but necessity, to become the pastor. Still, although I
knew I should be happy anywhere, so that I were a profitable
labourer in the vineyard, I did, by no means, feel that calm, that
indescribable satisfaction which I do when I look toward that
Church, which I think in the main formed on the apostolic model,