He gave up medicine, and devoted himself to other studies; and, in the course of a few years, he found himself occupying the chairs of History and of Science at the University of New York.

He also paid some attention to politics, and became, for a while, a person of really considerable renown and distinction.

He was respected by the most influential persons in the city.

Among the rest, he became acquainted with the widow--as she was by this time--of the Knickerbocker--and she showed him every kindness and attention.

But he did her the injustice of not believing her kindness genuine; he imagined that she cared for nothing but fashion and display, and was polite to him only because she thought he would add a little to her drawing-rooms.
At length, a sudden weariness of his mode of life coming over him, he resigned his public positions, and his professorships, and took lodgings in the family of a poor clergyman in Boston.