To ZACHARY MACAULAY, 23 OCTOBER 1818

MS: Harvard University. Address: Z Macaulay Esq. / No 20 Cadogan place / Chelsea / nr. London. Mostly published: Knutsford, Zachary Macaulay, pp. 342–3.

Cambridge. Oct. 23. 1818

My dear father,

I would have written earlier had I had any thing to communicate, which however is not even now the case; so that all my information must be that I am alive, and well, and comfortable, that Cambridge is a strict exemplification of the old maxim, Magna urbs, magna solitudo, and that I live among my small circle of friends as familiarly and as quietly as if we were in a desert island. I have resolved to have no second order of acquaintance, no deputy-friends who torment each other and themselves by ceremonies which only betray the coolness of their regard, and by a measured interchange of the dullest visits. I will be social and not gregarious.

George Stainforth makes a most excellent tutor, and indeed his instructions and preparation for them occupy so much of my time that I have not an overplus to spare for more private studies. The mathematical lectures are merely like learning my horn-book again, and will be so during the whole of this year.

I could not trust myself to say and can hardly venture to write all I feel upon entering on this world of hazard and danger and competition and honour. The evils of Cambridge, from all that I have been able to learn, are evils which must be sought, and from such a depth of moral degradation I trust that the goodness of God, my own education, and the connections which I have formed will preserve me.