, that the hours so disposed of
appear to be the actual life, and those given up to society the shadowy
and unreal.

This forcible contrast between the two portions of the same day, gives
charms to both, though I confess the hours passed in my library are
those which leave behind them the pleasantest reflections. I
experienced this sentiment when in the hey-day of youth, and surrounded
by some of the most gifted persons in England; but now, as age
advances, the love of solitude and repose increases, and a life spent
in study appears to me to be the one of all others the most desirable,
as the enjoyment of the best thoughts of the best authors is preferable
even to their conversation, could it be had, and, consequently to that
of the cleverest men to be met with in society.

Some pleasant people dined here yesterday. Among them was Colonel
Caradoc, the son of our old friend Lord Howden. He possesses great and
versatile information, is good-looking, well-bred, and has superior
abilities; in short, he has all the means, and appliances to boot, to
make a distinguished figure, in life, if he lacks not the ambition and
energy to use them; but, born to station and fortune, he may want the
incitement which the absence of these advantages furnishes, and be
content to enjoy the good he already has, instead of seeking greater
distinction.

Colonel Caradoc's conversation is brilliant and epigrammatic; and if
occasionally a too evident consciousness of his own powers is suffered
to be revealed in it, those who know it to be well-founded will pardon
his self-complacency, and not join with the persons, and they are not
few, whose _amour-propre_ is wounded by the display of his, and who
question, what really is not questionable, the foundation on which his
pretensions are based.

The clever, like the handsome, to be pardoned for being so, should
affect a humility they are but too seldom in the habit of feeling; and
to acquire popularity must appear unconscious of meriting it. This is
one of the many penalties entailed on the gifted in mind or person.

_January 1st_, 1829.--There is always something grave, if not awful, in
the opening of a new year; for who knows what may occur to render it
memorable for ever! If the bygone one has been marked by aught sad, the
arrival of the new reminds one of the lapse of time; and though the
destroyer brings patience, we sigh to think that we may have new
occasions for its difficult exercise. W