By him also, after a while, the _Athenaeum_ was transferred to other hands, better fitted in that respect; and under these it did take vigorous root, and still bears fruit according to its kind.
For the present, it brought him into the thick of London Literature, especially of young London Literature and speculation; in which turbid exciting element he swam and revelled, nothing loath, for certain months longer,--a period short of two years in all.

He had lodgings in Regent Street: his Father's house, now a flourishing and stirring establishment, in South Place, Knightsbridge, where, under the warmth of increasing revenue and success, miscellaneous cheerful socialities and abundant speculations, chiefly political (and not John's kind, but that of the _Times_ Newspaper and the Clubs), were rife, he could visit daily, and yet be master of his own studies and pursuits.

Maurice, Trench, John Mill, Charles Buller: these, and some few others, among a wide circle of a transitory phantasmal character, whom he speedily forgot and cared not to remember, were much about him; with these he in all ways employed and disported himself: a first favorite with them all.
No pleasanter companion, I suppose, had any of them.

So frank, open, guileless, fearless, a brother to all worthy souls whatsoever.

Come when you might, here is he open-hearted, rich in cheerful fancies, in grave logic, in all kinds of bright activity.