s, and it flees from me. It is all that I can do to keep Greek and
Latin out of all my letters. Wise sayings of Euripides are even now at
my fingers' ends. If I did not maintain a constant struggle against this
propensity, my correspondence would resemble the notes to the 'Pursuits
of Literature.' It is a dangerous thing for a man with a very strong
memory to read very much. I could give you three or four quotations
this moment in support of that proposition; but I will bring the vicious
propensity under subjection, if I can." [Many years later Macaulay wrote
to my mother: "Dr. -- came, and I found him a very clever man; a little
of a coxcomb, but, I dare say, not the worse physician for that. He must
have quoted Horace and Virgil six times at least a propos of his medical
inquiries. Horace says, in a poem in which he jeers the Stoics, that
even a wise man is out of sort when 'pituita molesta est;' which is,
being interpreted, 'when, his phlegm is troublesome.' The Doctor thought
it necessary to quote this passage in order to prove that phlegm is
troublesome;--a proposition, of the truth of which, I will venture to
say, no man on earth is better convinced than myself."]

Calcutta, May 29, 1835.

Dear Ellis,--I am in great want of news. We know that the Tories
dissolved at the end of December, and we also know that they were beaten
towards the end of February. [In November 1834 the King called Sir
Robert Peel to power; after having of his own accord dismissed the Whig
Ministry. Parliament was dissolved, but the Tories did not succeed in
obtaining a majority. After three months of constant and angry fighting,
Peel was driven from office in April 1835.] As to what passed in the
interval, we are quite in the dark. I will not plague you with comments
on events which will have been driven out of your mind by other events
before this reaches you, or with prophecies which may be falsified
before you receive them. About the final issue I am certain. The
language of the first great reformer is that which I should use in reply
to the exultation of our Tories here, if there were any of them who
could understand it

sebou, proseukhou thopte ton kratount aei
emoi d'elasson Zeuos e meden melei.
drato krateito tonde ton brakhun khronon
opes thelei daron gar ouk arksei theois

["Worship thou, adore, and flatter the monarch of the hour. To me Jove
is of less account than nothing. Let him have his will, and his sceptre,
for this