Q. C. Camb. Jan. 19th, 1811.
My dearest Mary,
MY time of anxiety is now completely over. I have just been admitted
B.A., and have no more college matters to divide my attention, or call
off my thoughts from the grand concern which lays before me. You will
wish to know how I succeeded in my late struggle. I have no flaming
honours to plume myself with, but through the mercy of God have passed
through in such a manner as to afford cause neither for self-complacency
nor discontent. I am a wrangler, though eleven from the top. My tutors,
I am happy to state, tell me they are quite satisfied with my degree; as
it respects myself, I have not the least wish it were otherwise. You
would find it difficult to enter into my present feelings. I seem of
late to have been like a ship tossed and driven by the fiercest tempests,
and in danger every moment of sinking; but now I have gained the
long-looked-for shore, and am enjoying for a time those sweets which my
temporary leisure affords me.