n unequivocally manifested itself.

This, indeed, in its first approaches, had been so gradual as to have
almost escaped notice; and it was not until after the sad truth was
fully ascertained, that indications of failure (some of which I have
already alluded to) which had appeared some time previously, were called
to mind. A loss of memory on certain points, a lessening acuteness of
the perceptive faculties, an occasional irritability (wholly unknown in
him before); a confusion of time, place, and person; the losing his way
in well-known places--all were remembered as having taken place, when
the melancholy fact had become too evident that the powers of his mind
were irreparably weakened.

On his way home in the year 1839, he passed a few days in London, and
then his friends plainly saw, what, from the altered manner of the very
few and brief letters he had latterly written, they had already feared,
that he had so failed as to have lost much of the vigor and activity of
his faculties. The impressions of one of his most intimate friends, as
conveyed at the time by letter, may fitly be quoted here. "I have just
come home from a visit which affected me deeply.... It was to Southey,
who arrived in town to-day from Hampshire with his wife.... He is (I
fear) much altered. The animation and peculiar clearness of his mind
quite gone, except a gleam or two now and then. What he said was much in
the spirit of his former mind as far as the matter and meaning went, but
the tone of strength and elasticity was wanting. The appearance was that
of a placid languor, sometimes approaching to torpor, but not otherwise
than cheerful. He is thin and shrunk in person, and that extraordinary
face of his has no longer the fire and strength it used to have, though
the singular cast of the features, and the habitual expressions, make it
still a most remarkable phenomenon. Upon the whole, I came away with a
troubled heart." ... After a brief account of the great trials of my
father's late years, the writer continues: "He has been living since his
marriage in Hampshire, where he has not had the aid of his old habits
and accustomed books to methodize his mind. All this considered, I think
we may hope that a year or two of quiet living at his own home may
restore him. His easy, cheerful temperament will be greatly in his
favor. You must help me to hope this, for I could not bear to think of
the decay of that great mind and noble nature--at least not