still harass me. My mind is of a very peculiar cast. I began to
think too early; and the indulgence of certain trains of thought,
and too free an exercise of the imagination, have superinduced a
morbid kind of sensibility; which is to the mind what excessive
irritability is to the body. Some circumstances occurred on my
arrival at Nottingham, which gave me just cause for inquietude
and anxiety; the consequences were insomnia, and a relapse into
causeless dejections. It is my business now to curb these
irrational and immoderate affections, and, by accustoming myself
to sober thought and cool reasoning, to restrain these freaks and
vagaries of the fancy, and redundancies of [Greek: melancholia].
When I am well, I cannot help entertaining a sort of contempt for
the weakness of mind which marks my indispositions. Titus when
well, and Titus when ill, are two distinct persons. The man, when
in health, despises the man, when ill, for his weakness, and the
latter envies the former for his felicity."

As his health declined his prospects seemed to brighten. He was
again pronounced first at the great College examination; he was
one of the three best theme writers, whose merits were so nearly
equal that the examiners could not decide between them; and he
was a prize-man both in the mathematical and logical or general
examination, and in Latin composition. His College offered him a
private tutor at its expense, and Mr. Catton obtained exhibitions
for him to the value of sixty-six pounds per annum, by which he
was enabled to give up the pecuniary assistance he had received
from his friends. But even at this moment, when the world promised
so much, his situation was truly deplorable. The highest honours
of the University were supposed to be within his grasp, and the
conviction that such was the general opinion, goaded him on to the