ABSTRACT
On my arrival in London, I stopped at an hotel at the west end of the town, where, it being then near midnight, I engaged a small apartment, and, after a short supper, retired to rest. My fortitude was nearly exhausted by excess of rumination; and my mind began to sicken with disgust, while I reflected on the events which had pressed rapidly forward, since my departure from Glenowen. The weight of mortal calamities rarely overpowers the soul, when intervals of hope and consolation allow time for reason to surmount them; but continual sorrow undermines the foundation of every bulwark which human imagination can build; and as the perpetual wave diminishes the sandy shore, hourly encroaches, till resistance is vain, and the imperious gulph overwhelms every object that opposes.
