Such is the opening of one of the most enchanting and instructive poems in our language; a poem which, perhaps, in the end, will survive the remembrance of the Seasons, although the circle of its present reputation may not be so widely extended. The “CHOICE OF A PROFESSION” is probably, after all, generally speaking, rather the result of the arguments and admonitions of relations and friends, than of any extraordinary impulse or predilections of one's own. There are doubtless numerous instances to the contrary; in which a ruling passion has so strongly developed itself in earlier years, that no subsequent reflection or experience can obliterate its traces or divert its tendency. Had my first feelings and earliest studies been vigorously followed up, I had probably been at the Bar: although, even then, the passion of my earliest boyhood for Arms was by no means extinguished.