. Where he was
educated does not appear; but there can scarcely be a shadow of doubt,
that he was for a considerable while at some school or other, where he
had a number of cronies. In proof of this, and to show that we have good
reasons for our suppositions, James recommends me to print the following
rigmarole meditations, on the top of which is written in half-text,

SCHOOL RECOLLECTIONS.

"--They who in the vale of years advance,
And the dark eve is closing on their way,
When on the mind the recollections glance
Of early joy, and Hope's delightful day,
Behold, in brighter hues than those of truth,
The light of morning on the fields of youth."

SOUTHEY.

The morning being clear and fine, full of Milton's "vernal delight and
joy," I determined on a saunter; the inclemency of the weather having,
for more than a week, kept me a prisoner at home. Although now advanced
into the heart of February, a great fall of snow had taken place; the
roads were blocked up; the mails obstructed; and, while the merchant
grumbled audibly for his letters, the politician, no less chagrined,
conned over and over again his dingy rumpled old newspaper, compelled "to
eat the leek of his disappointment." The wind, which had blown
inveterately steady from the surly north-east, had veered, however,
during the preceding night, to the west; and, as it were by the spell of
an enchanter, an instant thaw commenced. In the low grounds the snow
gleamed forth in patches of a pearly whiteness; but, on the banks of
southern exposure, the green grass and the black trodden pathway again
showed themselves. The vicissitudes of twenty-four hours were indeed
wonderful. Instead of the sharp frost, the pattering hail, and the
congealed streams, we had the blue sky, the vernal zephyr, and the genial
sunshine; the stream murmuring with a broader wave, as if making up for
the season spent in the fetters of congelation; and that luxurious flow
of the spirits, which irresistibly comes over the heart, at the
re-assertion of Nature's suspended vigour.

As I passed on under the budding trees, how delightful it was to hear the
lark and the linnet again at their cheerful songs, to be aware that now
"the winter was over and gone;" and to feel that the prospect of summer,
with its lengthening days, and its rich variety of fruits and flowers,
lay fu