44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



philosophy. To hear of praise from an eminent 

 person, though no doubt apt or certain to excite 

 vanity, is, I think, good for a young man, as it helps 

 to keep him in the right course. 



My visits to Maer during these two or three suc- 

 ceeding years were quite delightful, independently of 

 the autumnal shooting. Life there was perfectly 

 free ; the country was very pleasant for walking or 

 riding ; and in the evening there was much very 

 agreeable conversation, not so personal as it generally 

 is in large family parties, together with music. In the 

 summer the whole family used often to sit on the 

 steps of the old portico, with the flower-garden in 

 front, and with the steep wooded bank opposite the 

 house reflected in the lake, with here and there a fish 

 rising or a water-bird paddling about. Nothing has 

 left a more vivid picture on my mind than these 

 evenings at Maer. I was also attached to and greatly 

 revered my Uncle Jos ; he was silent and reserved, so 

 as to be a rather awful man ; but he sometimes talked 

 openly with me. He was the very type of an upright 

 man, with the clearest judgment. I do not believe 

 that any power on earth could have made him swerve 

 an inch from what he considered the right course. I 

 used to apply to him in my mind the well-known ode 

 of Horace, now forgotten by me, in which the words 

 " nee vultus tyranni, &c.," * come in. 



Cambridge 1828-1831. After having spent two 



* Justum et tenacem propositi virum 

 Non civium ardor prava jubentium. 

 Non vultus instantis tyranni 

 Mcnte quatit solida. 



