s had not
impaired his studies. Disgusted as he was at the political outlook, in
the beginning of July he had fallen fairly to work more or less close
for ten or twelve hours a day. It 'proved as of old a cure for
ill-humour, though in itself not of the most delectable kind. It is odd
enough, though true, that reading hard close-grained stuff produces a
much more decided and better effect in this way, than books written
professedly for the purpose of entertainment.' Then his eyes became
painful, affected the head, and in August almost brought him to a full
stop. After absolute remission of work for a few days, he slowly spread
full sail again, and took good care no more to stint either exercise or
sleep, thinking himself, strange as it now sounds, rather below than
above par for such exertions. He declared that the bodily fatigue, the
mental fatigue, and the anxiety as to the result, made reading for a
class a thing not to be undergone more than once in a lifetime. Time had
mightier fatigues in store for him than even this. The heavy work among
the ideas of men of bygone days did not deaden intellectual projects of
his own. A few days before he went to see the Lords throw out the Reform
bill, he made a curious entry:--

_October 3rd, 1831._--Yesterday an idea, a chimera, entered my
head, of gathering during the progress of my life, notes and
materials for a work embracing three divisions, Morals, Politics,
Education, and I commit this notice to paper now, that many years
hence, if it please God, I may find it either a pleasant or at
least an instructive reminiscence, a pleasant and instructing one,
I trust, if I may ever be permitted to execute this design;
instructive if it shall point while in embryo, and serve to teach
me the folly of presumptuous schemes conceived during the buoyancy
of youth, and only relinquished on a discovery of incompetency in
later years. Meanwhile I am only contemplating the gradual
accumulation of materials.

The reading went on at a steady pace, not without social
intermissions:--

_Oct. 11th and 12th._--Rode. Papers. Virgil. Thucydides, both
days. Also some optics. Wrote a long letter home. Read a chapter of
Butler each day. Hume. Breakfasted also with Canning to meet Lady
C[anning]. She received us, I thought, with great kindness, and
spoke a great deal about Lord Grey's conduct with reference to her