"6 we shall see. But do not lose sight of the object which induced me to receive this youth, viz. that we may do him good, and pray, my boy, that it may please God to support and assist you in conducting yourself aright in your intercourse with him."

This discourse was interrupted by the reappearance of Edgar, who had availed himself of the interval, to change his dress, to arrange his hair, and to adorn his person, according to the last and most knowing mode established in the university.

Henry found it difficult to withdraw his eyes from so complete a figure; but Mr. Dalben took no manner of notice of this extraordinary display of fashion, but invited the young stranger to sit down to some excellent roast lamb which Mrs. Kitty had just set smoking on the board.

"I hope, Mr. Bonville," said the old gentleman, "that you are prepared to accommodate yourself to a number of very obsolete habits. If you cannot breakfast very early, dine at three, sup at eight, and retire to rest at nine, I do not know what will become of you."

Edgar professed that there was nothing in which he so much delighted as the simplicity of the country; talked of studying in the

beautiful arbour he had seen from his windows; expatiated on the inspiration of rural sounds and rural scenery; and declared, that he never thoroughly enjoyed a night's rest when he was not in bed before ten o'clock.

Mr. Dalben led him to speak of the examination which was to take place during the next term, when it was expected he was to take his degree, and pressed him to make the very best of the few months which were to intervene.

"It is my firm intention so to do," replied Edgar. "At what time do your servants rise, Mr. Dalben? I shall beg them to knock at my door as they go down stairs; though probably I need not give them the trouble, for I shall always be up as soon as it is light, and so obtain two or three hours for reading before breakfast."

"And between breakfast and one o'clock you may have four more hours, Edgar," said Mr. Dalben.

"And I must snatch two hours again after dinner," rejoined the young man; "I am determined to read eight hours a day during the vacation."

"What books do you propose to take up?" asked Mr. Dalben.

Edgar mentioned several; indeed, more than Mr. Dalben would have thought advisable for a

young man of superior talents and industry; he therefore stated to Mr. Bonville, that he thought it might be more to his credit to make himself master of as few books as the college rules would permit, and to reject, in the present crisis, all extraneous studies.

Edgar rather smiled at this advice, and spoke largely of his plans and prospects, bringing forward instances of young men, who, without seeming to labour, had carried away the honours from the veriest plodders in the university; and betraying sentiments, by which he made it evident that he was utterly unacquainted with the powers or deficiencies of his own mind.

Having dined, Mr. Dalben proposed a walk, and was much pleased with the polite and kind attentions paid to him by young Bonville, who would have lifted the gates from their very hinges, had it been possible, to have saved his venerable relation the trouble of climbing over them, when they were fastened. Mr. Dalben was of the old court and school of manners, and was always fond of a polite deportment. He accordingly took occasion to commend this obliging and agreeable quality in his young visitor, and to express his disapprobation of the dry, ungracious, and sarcastic style of manners too prevalent among the young

people of the present age; pointing out whence this sort of manner proceeded, viz. from that contempt of authorities which is becoming daily more prevalent as the period of the general dissolution of present things becomes more near; and then proceeded to remark, that Christian feelings, and the prevalence of love and charity in the heart of man, are the only true and solid basis of real courtesy.

Edgar seemed to take up these ideas with so much quickness, and such apparent pleasure, that Mr. Dalben ventured to go a step farther on the subject of religion, and to point out how God the Spirit assists those who are under his divine influence, to repel from their minds in a great measure all uncharitable and unkindly feelings, and to admit in their stead those which are tender, gentle, and forgiving; and then, by way of quietly ascertaining the depth of his young friend's knowledge of divine subjects, he asked him, what books of divinity he had been in the habit of studying.

Edgar seemed rather embarrassed at the question, and evaded a direct answer, but replied, that it was his intention to get up all the historical books of Scripture during the long vacation.

"I shall have great pleasure in assisting you

in that branch of study, Edgar," said Mr. Dalben, " or indeed in any other in which I can be supposed to be capable. But although I can assist Henry as yet, I ought not to be expected to be in a condition to help a young man in his classical studies who is to take his degree in a few months; but with the Bible I am more at home, and there you may fully command me. In what part of Scripture history do you suppose yourself to be most deficient, Mr. Bonville? for as our time is short, it might perhaps be best to work hardest where we are most weak."

Edgar, to use a rustic expression, hummed and hawed for a minute or more, and then requested a repetition of the question; which being granted, "I cannot say exactly," he said, "where I may be most deficient; perhaps

it

may be in the history of the descendants of Seth-perhaps I may not be quite so well acquainted with that portion of history as of that of the other branches of the family of our great father."

Mr. Dalben coughed, and Edgar went on.

What has made me think of this is, that one of the men in my rooms, the day before I left Oxford, was telling another man, that as there were two sorts of men in the world, the