Excerpt from Forty Years' Recollections of Life, Literature, and Public Affairs, Vol. 1 of 2: From 1830 to 1870 In the early summer of the year 1832 a young man who had just completed his eighteenth year arrived in London, from Brussels, where he had passed the previous four years in study. He had high hopes, great ambition, vigorous health, and immense inexperience. He had, moreover, a few - a very few - pounds in his pocket, and a small - a very small - credit at an army agency in Westminster, which last was a fund which was only to be available upon occasion of the utmost urgency. This youth had come to London to make, or endeavour to make, his way in literature and journalism. He had once thought of studying law, but had abandoned the idea. He had no taste for theology and divinity and did not think that he was fitted for the pulpit. He had speculated on the possibility of becoming a physician, but did not think on cool reflection that that was his true vocation; and he had an unwise objection to trade. His ancestors, as far back as he could trace them, had all been soldiers, but he lacked interest to obtain a commission, or having had interest it had slipped from his grasp, though he would not have objected to a military career. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.