Nature is the last goddess to whom my devoirs shall be paid.
Yours most faithfully, THOMAS B.MACAULAY.
This votary of city life was still two months short of completing his fifteenth year! Aspenden Hall: August 23, 1815.
My dear Mama,--You perceive already in so large a sheet, and so small a hand, the promise of a long, a very long letter, longer, as I intend it, than all the letters which you send in a half-year together.

I have again begun my life of sterile monotony, unvarying labour, the dull return of dull exercises in dull uniformity of tediousness.

But do not think that I complain.
My mind to me a kingdom is, Such perfect joy therein I find As doth exceed all other bliss That God or nature hath assigned.
Assure yourself that I am philosopher enough to be happy,--I meant to say not particularly unhappy,--in solitude; but man is an animal made for society.

I was gifted with reason, not to speculate in Aspenden Park, but to interchange ideas with some person who can understand me.
This is what I miss at Aspenden.

There are several here who possess both taste and reading; who can criticise Lord Byron and Southey with much tact and "savoir du metier." But here it is not the fashion to think.
Hear what I have read since I came here.