EARLY LIFE. 33 



down for himself a strict plan of reading; and of 

 the notes which he took there remain a number of 

 books, beginning when he was only fourteen, all 

 bearing the sentence as a motto, which so char- 

 acterised his love of learning, indicating that he 

 delighted in it abstractedly, and for its own sake, 

 without regarding the uses to which it might be 

 turned " Vita sine litteris, mors." 



When the London University (now called Univer- 

 sity College) was founded in 1825, I had a good deal 

 of correspondence with Lord Eobertson, who strongly 

 recommended taking as our motto this inscription in 

 his father's note-books. I give what is above stated 

 as his gloss upon the motto or text advisedly. 



His whole life was spent in study. I well remem- 

 ber his constant habit of quitting the drawing-room, 

 both after dinner and again after tea, and remaining 

 shut up in his library. The period of time when I 

 saw this was after the 'History of America' had 

 been published, and before Major Bennett's map and 

 memoir appeared, which, he tells us, first suggested 

 the ' Disquisition on Ancient India/ Consequently, 

 for above ten years he was in the course of constant 

 study, engaged in extending his information, examin- 

 ing and revolving the facts of history, contemplating 

 ethical and theological truths, amusing his fancy with 

 the strains of Greek and Eoman poetry, or warming 

 it at the fire of ancient eloquence so congenial to his 

 mind, at once argumentative and rhetorical ; and all 

 this study produced not one written line, though thus 



VOL i, c 



