It is true; but it did not become habitual, as far as I can learn, until after he was dismissed from his tutorship.

He took opium, because it made him forget for a time more effectually than drink; and, besides, it was more portable.

In procuring it he showed all the cunning of the opium-eater.

He would steal out while the family were at church--to which he had professed himself too ill to go--and manage to cajole the village druggist out of a lump; or, it might be, the carrier had unsuspiciously brought him some in a packet from a distance.

For some time before his death he had attacks of delirium tremens of the most frightful character; he slept in his father's room, and he would sometimes declare that either he or his father should be dead before the morning.