belief I must say that I am unwilling to engage in the study of the
law.... Whatever I do study ought to be engaged in with all my soul,--
for I WILL BE EMINENT in something.... Let me reside one year at
Cambridge; let me study belles-lettres; and after that time it will
not require a spirit of prophecy to predict with some degree of
certainty what kind of a figure I could make in the literary world. If
I fail here, there is still time left for the study of a profession."
...His father could not make up his mind to trust his son to the
uncertain reed of literature. "As you have not had the fortune (I will
not say whether good or ill) to be born rich, you must adopt a
profession which will afford you subsistence as well as reputation."

There was, however, a friendly compromise between father and son, and
the young student was allowed to pass a year in Cambridge. He replied
to his father: "I am very much rejoiced that you accede so readily to
my proposition of studying general literature for one year at
Cambridge. My grand object in doing this will be to gain as perfect
knowledge of the French and Italian languages as can be gained without
travelling in France and Italy,--though to tell the truth I intend to
visit both before I die.... The fact is, I have a most voracious
appetite for knowledge. To its acquisition I will sacrifice
everything.... Nothing could induce me to relinquish the pleasures of
literature;... but I can be a lawyer. This will support my real
existence, literature an IDEAL one.

"I purchased last evening a beautiful pocket edition of Sir William
Jones's Letters, and have just finished reading them. Eight languages
he was critically versed in; eight more he read with a dictionary: and
there were twelve more not wholly unknown to him. I have somewhere
seen or heard the observation that as many languages as a person