191 



CHAPTER VII. 



Can gold calm passion, or make reason shine ? 

 Can we dig peace or wisdom from the mine ? 

 Wisdom to gold prefer, for 'tis much less 

 To make our fortune than our happiness 



The man who consecrates his hours 



By vigorous effort, and an honest aim, 

 At once he draws the sting of life and death : 



He walks with nature, and her paths are peace. 



EDWAED YOUNG, 1780. 



THUS have we accompanied Robert Pocock through 

 the first five months of the most complete of his 

 few and fragmentary Diaries which remain extant, 

 namely : that for the year 1823. In the following 

 pages it will be resumed and carried to the close of 

 that year. Its entries will afford the reader many 

 salient opportunities of judging of his character, its 

 defects and merits. 



It may be thought that these diurnal entries, follow- 

 ing each other throughout the year, are tedious in 

 perusal as they are necessarily detached and broken up 

 in subject; but upon the most careful considera- 

 tion it has been felt, as indeed has been previously 

 observed, that where the means of exhibiting the course 

 of life, character, and occupation are so mainly to be 

 derived from the few written remains which have^sur- 



