It must be owned,he takes his failures in the kindliest manner;and goes along,bating no jot of heart or hope.Perhaps I should have more admired this than I did!My dissuasions,in that case,might have been fainter.But then my sincerity,which was all the use of my poor counsel in assent or dissent,would have been less.He was now furthermore busy with a _Tragedy of Strafford_,the theme of many failures in Tragedy;planning it industriously in his head;eagerly reading in _Whitlocke,Rushworth_and the Puritan Books,to attain a vesture and local habitation for it.Faithful assiduous studies I do believe;--of which,knowing my stubborn realism,and savage humor towards singing by the Thespian or other methods,he told me little,during his visits that summer.
The advance of the dark weather sent him adrift again;to Torquay,for this winter:there,in his old Falmouth climate,he hoped to do well;--and did,so far as well-doing was readily possible,in that sad wandering way of life.However,be where he may,he tries to work "two or three hours in the morning,"were it even "with a lamp,"in bed,before the fires are lit;and so makes something of it.From abundant Letters of his now before me,I glean these two or three small glimpses;sufficient for our purpose at present.The general date is "Tor,near Torquay:"--_To Mrs.Charles Fox,Falmouth_.