stood first of his year in classics, and fourth in mathematics. A fever that broke out in the town carried him off in the full flush of success, with the highest University honours almost in his grasp. He had been a competitor for the English poetical prize in 1814, when Dr. Whewell was announced as the successful candidate.
Herbert Knowles was of humble origin. Alone in the world, without father or mother; his abilities excited the attention of strangers, and they offered to subscribe a portion of the necessary expenses of his education, if his friends could raise the rest. He was sent to a school in Yorkshire, on leaving which, his friends found themselves unable to afford him further assistance. Anxious to do something for himself, he wrote a poem, "brimful of power and of promise," and sent it to Southey, asking permission to dedicate it to him. Southey made inquiries respecting him, found that his conduct was exemplary, subscribed himself, and obtained other subscriptions to make up the requisite sum for his support at Cambridge. The overjoyed youth wrote a letter to his benefactor, remarkable for the sense of gratitude it manifests throughout, but more remarkable still for its good sense. The melancholy case of Kirke White was before his eyes. He was apprehensive his physical strength might prove insufficient to support him under the exhausting efforts necessary for University distinction. "Could he twine a laurel with the cypress, he would not repine, but to relinquish every hope of future excellence, and future usefulness in one wild and unavailing pursuit, were indeed a madman's act, and worthy of a madman's fate." What he could do he would, and thus he set to work, and after the lapse of two brief months sank in the race, with all his aspirations.
Southey, notwithstanding his diligence, had been unable to extricate himself from the annoyances of hampered
