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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 

 the presence of many things which weighed heavy upon 

 my spirits. When I found myself too ill to read, and 

 too desponding to endure my own reflections, I dis- 

 covered that it is really a miserable thing to be destitute y 

 of the soothing and supporting hand when natare mosM 

 needs it. I wandered up and down from one man's roOrft , 

 to another, and from one College to another ; imploriri»^ 

 society, a little conversation, and a little relief of th^ 

 burthen which pressed upon my spirits ; and I am sorry 

 to say, that those who, when I was cheerful and lively, 

 sought my society with avidity, now, when I actually 

 needed conversation, were too busy to grant it. Our 

 College examination was then approaching, and I per- 

 ceived with anguish that I had read for the University 

 scholarship until I had barely time to get up our private 

 subjects, and that as I was now too ill to read, all hope 

 of getting through the examination with decent respec- 

 tability was at an end. This was an additional grief. 

 I went to our tutor, with tears in my eyes, and told him 

 I must absent myself from the examination ; a step 

 which would have precluded me from a station amongst 

 the prizemen until the second year. He earnestly en- 

 treated me to run the risk. My surgeon gave me strong 

 stimulants a-nd supporting medicines during the examina- 

 tion week, and I passed, I believe, one of the most re- 

 spectable examinations amongst them. As soon as ever 

 it was over, I left Cambridge by the advice of my 

 surgeon and tutor, and I feel myself now pretty strong. 

 I have given up the thought of sitting for the University 

 scholarship in consequence of my illness, as the course of 

 my reading was efFectually broken. In this place I have 

 been much amused, and have been received witli an at- i 

 tention in the literary circles which I neither expected I 

 nor deserved. But this does not affect me as it once j 

 would have done : my views are widely altered, and I I 

 hope that I shall in time learn to lay my whole heart at j 

 the foot of the cross. 



