son who honestly and independently studies the word of God, to learn his duties as a man and as a Christian; and then proceeds, as honestly and independently, to discharge those duties.

If any reader of this volume is able, as I sincerely hope he may, securely, though humbly, to lay his hand upon his heart, and say that he is such a man ;-all that I will say, in return, is, "Let me have that man for my bosom friend."

And now for the promised chapter, or, at least, for the preface to it.

CHAP. VIII.

TRAINING FOR COLLEGE.

Nor

As my aunt's last experiment did not issue in any violent catastrophe-or, in other words, as I was neither beaten nor expelled for my rigid adherence to her maxim-she saw nothing in the result of her project which was calculated to undeceive her as to its intrinsic value. was I myself disposed to undeceive her. My long habits of conformity and concession made it much more easy and natural for me to attend to her, than to require her to attend to truth and right reason. Therefore, in spite of what experience might have taught me, I adhered to proverbs, and to every species of oracular sentence, with almost as much devotion as my aunt herself. If she might be esteemed a knight

errant in the cause, I might without presumption pretend to the dignity of squire; and was scarcely, I venture to say, less true to my character than my illustrious namesake and predecessor. So that when the time for going to college approached, I cordially concurred with her in thinking that nothing could be more es sential to my right conduct there, than the judicious selection of half a dozen of these sage maxims, by means of which I, perhaps somewhat ambitiously, hoped to exhibit, in the short space of a three years' residence, the collected wisdom of many centuries.

My aunt Rachel, indeed, would, if an opportunity had been given her, have made me familiar with a very different kind of wisdom. But then her sister always followed so closely and watchfully upon her heels; she talked with 50 much more of an oracular tone; and, moreover, perpetually supplied me with such salutary cautions against the fanaticism, &c. of

her sister, that the mild, gentle creature, had rarely the least influence with me, except, indeed, when my aunt Winifred was cross. At those moments it must be confessed, that I used always to hide my cares in her bosom. But, as few persons would be more attractive (a case by no means uncommon with the whole family of scolds, and, in itself, a sufficient demonstration how much better they might be if they would,) than my aunt Winifred when she had a great point to carry, I was not obliged very often, at this period of my history, thus to take refuge in the tenderness of Rachel. And besides, her requisitions were too high for the then forlorn state of my mind. She required me to be

66

sans peur," as well as "sans reproche;" which, however possible to a good or a brave man, is quite impossible to a man determined to "do at Rome as they do at Rome."

But to return.-The time was now fixed for my departure. My aunt, by dint of an extra

cup of agrimony, a few additional turns on the broad sunny gravel walk, and much mental communion with the sages of antiquity, at length managed to construct the following brief Table of Maxims, which I shall present to my reader in the precise form in which she delivered it

to me.

"MORAL CODE,

66 FOR

"MY NEPHEW SANCHO AT COLLEGE.

"COLLECTED

"FROM THE STORES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN

WISDOM,

"BY WINIFRED

"On Religion.

"1. Many men many minds.'

"2. Seeing is believing.'

"3. Never too late to repent.'

4. The nearer the church the farther

from God.'

E