With my somewhat vague aspiring mind, to be imprisoned in the rude details of a most material life was often irksome.

When you are imprisoned, you can’t enjoy the benefits of being alive. You can’t educate yourself and discover the beauty of the world. Fishy

It is curious that, with my somewhat antinomian tendencies, I should have gone to Trinity Hall - which was, and is, before all a Law College - and should thus have been thrown into close touch with the legal element in life.

I'll do as I please. My mind is not to be imprisoned.

I was in the Square at the time. The crowd was a most good-humoured, easy going, smiling crowd; but presently it was transformed. A regiment of mounted police came cantering up.

I might have simply settled down into an armchair literary life. I really don't know exactly why I didn't.