be practically sensible of this truth, and that an unpleasant
resolution in accordance with it would be necessary. By him also, after
a while, the _Athenaeum_ was transferred to other hands, better fitted
in that respect; and under these it did take vigorous root, and still
bears fruit according to its kind.

For the present, it brought him into the thick of London Literature,
especially of young London Literature and speculation; in which turbid
exciting element he swam and revelled, nothing loath, for certain months
longer,--a period short of two years in all. He had lodgings in
Regent Street: his Father's house, now a flourishing and stirring
establishment, in South Place, Knightsbridge, where, under the warmth of
increasing revenue and success, miscellaneous cheerful socialities and
abundant speculations, chiefly political (and not John's kind, but
that of the _Times_ Newspaper and the Clubs), were rife, he could visit
daily, and yet be master of his own studies and pursuits. Maurice,
Trench, John Mill, Charles Buller: these, and some few others, among
a wide circle of a transitory phantasmal character, whom he speedily
forgot and cared not to remember, were much about him; with these he in
all ways employed and disported himself: a first favorite with them all.

No pleasanter companion, I suppose, had any of them. So frank, open,
guileless, fearless, a brother to all worthy souls whatsoever. Come when
you might, here is he open-hearted, rich in cheerful fancies, in grave
logic, in all kinds of bright activity. If perceptibly or imperceptibly
there is a touch of ostentation in him, blame it not; it is so innocent,
so good and childlike. He is still fonder of jingling publicly, and
spreading on the table, your big purse of opulences than his own. Abrupt
too he is, cares little for big-wigs and garnitures; perhaps laughs
more than the real fun he has would order; but of arrogance there is
no vestige, of insincerity or of ill-nature none. These must have been
pleasant evenings in Regent Street, when the circle chanced to be well
adjusted there. At other times, Philistines would enter, what we call
bores, dullards, Children of Darkness; and then,--except in a hunt of
dullards, and a _bore-baiting_, which might be permissible,--the evening
was dark. Sterling, of course, had innumerable cares withal; and was
toiling like a slave; his very recreations almost a kind of work. An
enormous activity was in the man;--sufficient,