First Sentence

"IN the year 1847 Carlyle, with the characteristic kindness and loyalty to friendship which always distinguished him, wielded his powerful pen, and used his utmost interest with the great, to obtain a pension for his old acquaintance and former neighbour, the gifted and amiable Leigh Hunt, who, now in the evening of his life, after bravely bearing the burden and heat of the day, found himself without the comforts and alleviations that usually sweeten its close."