Agra. He says that the place is pleasant: 'but who would not see it couleur de rose on a bright, sharp, bracing December day, and in all the first blush of excitement from the new dignity?'
After he is settled in the Government House, his domestic temperament re-asserts itself. He writes that his palace is dreary to him, though crowded with official friends and bright with social gatherings. He feels 'alone in the crowd.' He misses 'her voice which is hushed for ever, and the circle of children' which will never be re-assembled as he knew it. Again alluding to his wife full seven years after her death, he says — 'Sometimes I think, what would I give for one of those smiles that used to chase away all care' — but he adds — 'What is a man worth if he has no stronger reliance than on a fellow-creature like himself?' Seeing the happy homes of others he says that 'a chord is touched.' To near relations he from time to time laments his domestic void, but believes that it will never be filled.
He dreaded lest the elation, inseparable from his advancement, should arouse personal vanity. 'Never,' he writes, 'was a greater snare invented for weak and sinful men than praise and prosperity.' Again he says — 'In the time of our wealth and success, Good Lord, deliver us!' Yet he will be grateful — ''tis a sorry jade which improves not by good treatment — but can only be roused by whip and spur.' Further, he will strive after a frame of mind which 'prosperity cannot elevate nor adversity depress.' Referring to
