administered, and he was pronounced the first man of his year. The
triumph, complete and exhilarating as it was, too closely
resembled that of the generous steed, who, in distancing his
competitors, reaches the goal, and dies; and his own ideas of the
sacrifices with which such an honour must be attended were very
poetical. He said to an intimate friend, almost the last time he
saw him, that were he to paint a picture of Fame crowning a
distinguished under graduate after the senate house examination,
he would represent her as concealing a death's head under a mask
of beauty.

Soon after this event, Kirke White went to London, and on
Christmas Eve he wrote to his mother from town, stating that his
health had been rather affected by study, that he came to London
for amusement, and that his tutor had, in the kindest manner,
relieved his mind from pecuniary cares, and cheered him with the
assurance that his talents would be rewarded by his College. But
it is from his letters to his friend that the real state to which
excitement and labour had reduced him, is to be learnt, because,
to allay the fears of his relations, he represented himself to
them, as being much better than he actually was:

London, Christmas, 1805.

"I wrote you a letter, which now lies in my drawer at St. John's;
but in such a weak state of body, and in so desponding and
comfortless a tone of mind, that I knew it would give you pain,
and therefore I chose not to send it. I have indeed been ill; but
thanks to God, I am recovered. My nerves were miserably shattered
by over application, and the absence of all that could amuse, and