iv.] CHOICE OF A PROFESSION, 1830. 61 



issue of this important crisis, I have earnestly besought 

 His guidance in the new line of life thus set before me. 

 My friends have all pressed upon me the propriety of as- 

 suming the gown, and of going abroad for a considerable 

 time. The former I am now preparing for, and hope to 

 accomplish in June. The latter I think proper, for many 

 reasons, to delay. 



* I am now permitted, under the support of those 

 friends whose advice I have most reason to respect 

 and esteem, to follow the bent of my mind, to cast law 

 behind me, and, content with a small competence, to 

 follow science at leisure. I have not patience to repeat 

 all I have thought and said on the subject for the tenth 

 time here. Suffice it to say that my resolution was con- 

 summated by John's kind letter of the 2nd March, which 

 greatly affected me. Accepting his splendid offer of 

 300/. a year would indeed have made me rich for life ; 

 but I feel too much the tax I should be putting on my 

 friends in order to support me in what the world calls 

 idleness, to entail upon them other disagreements than 

 the nature of my choice necessarily carried with it. I 

 shall enjoy at least the comfort of independence. 



' But enough of this. God be praised ! my mind is now 

 at ease; and though I have the preliminary drudgery of 

 passing advocate to go through, that is a trifle. In June 

 I ImjM- 1 shall be free of law for ever. Then for self- 

 cultivation ! 1 mean to study the higher mathematics, and 

 make some original researches connected with the funda- 

 mentals of meteorology. If things go well, I intend to go 

 abroad the autumn of next year for eighteen months or 

 years. But 1 plan for the future with perfect diffi- 

 di-ncr. God only knows how far there may be between 

 me and misfortune, disease, or death.' 



H..IM -, 



to Completing ///// '/>>/, //////-.</ 



' Most merciful and graHous (MM!, who lia-t preserved 

 into this hour, I nm>t humbly ackn- 



