“Many thanks, my dear friend, for your very kind and welcome letter, and your congratulations on the state of my health. The latter is, indeed, more improved than I could once have imagined, and I have scarcely any thing to complain of except a defect of memory, which I find generally accompanying advanced life, and which does not yet deprive me of those mental occupations which are most suitable to my age.
“It is with great pleasure that I learn from Edmund, that there are no symptoms of any decline in that part of your constitution, and that the admirable powers with which you have so long amused and instructed the world, still exhibit all their pristine vigour.
| LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. | 163 |
“The Institution, which I must regard as principally indebted to you for its success, and which may one day convert Liverpool into an Athens or a Florence, has been most auspiciously brought forward under your tutelage, and I have the satisfaction of hearing from all who were your auditors, that nothing could have surpassed your exertions on that occasion. In my retirement from the world I conceive that you can scarcely be in earnest, by assigning me high-learned and orthodox acquaintance; but bad I any such; you might be assured of my best endeavours to enlist them in your service. At present my knowledge of such distinguished persons is in the records of my past life, and is likely never to be renewed.”
