immediate recitation, he echoed forth in a loud and pointed tone of voice

-Nos, nostraque lividus odit.

It must be confessed that my good old master had a vaunting kind of style in setting forth his school, and once in conversation with my grandfather in Trinity Lodge, he was so unaccountably misled by the spirit of false prophecy, as to venture to say in a raillying kind of way-" Master, I will make your

grandson as good a scholar as yourself."— To this Doctor Bentley in the like vein of raillery replied-" Pshaw, Arthur, how can that

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be, when I have forgot more than thou ever "knew'st ?" Certain it is that my inauspicious beginnings augured very ill for the bold prediction, thus improvidently hazarded; for so supremely idle was I, and so far from being animated by the charms of the Latin grammar, that the labour of instruction was but labour lost, and it seemed a chance if I was destined to arrive at any other acquirement but the art of sinking, in which I regularly proceeded till I found my proper station at the very bottom of my class, which, as far as idleness could be

my security, I was likely to take lasting pos session of.

I am persuaded however that the tranquillity of my ignorance would have suffered no interruption from the remonstrances of the worthy usher of the under-school, who sate in a plaid night gown and let things take their course, had not the penetrating eye of old Kinsman discovered the grandson of his friend far in the rear of the line of honour, and in a fair train to give the flattest contradiction to his prophecy. Whereupon one day, which by me can never be forgotten, calling me up to him in his chair at the head of the school, he began with much solemnity and in a loud voice to lecture me very sharply, whilst all eyes were upon me, all ears open, and a dead silence, horrible to my feelings, did not leave a hope that a single word had escaped the notice of my schoolfellows. I well remember his demanding of me what report I could expect him to make of me to my grandfather Bentley. I shuddered at the name, even at that early age so loved and so revered: I made no defence; I had none to make, and he went thundering on, farther perhaps than he need to have gone, had he

given less scope to his zeal, and trusted more to his intuition, for the keenness of his reproof had sunk into my heart; I was covered with shame and confusion; I retired abashed to my seat, which was the lowest in my class, and that class the lowest save one in the underschool: I hid my face between my hands, resting my head upon the desk before me, and gave myself up to tears and contrition: When I raised my eyes and looked about me, I thought I discovered contempt in the countenances of the boys. At that moment the spirit of emu lation, which had not yet awaked in my heart, was thoroughly roused; but whilst I was thus resolving on a reform I fell ill, whether from agitation of mind, or from cause more natural I know not: I was however laid up in a sick bed for a considerable time, and in that piteous situation visited by my mother, who came from Cambridge on the alarm, and under her tender care I at length regained both my spirits and my health.

My mother now returned to Cambridge and I was taken into Kinsman's own house as á boarder, where being associated with boys of a better description, and more immediately un

der the eye of my most timely admonisher, I took all the pains that my years would admit of to deserve his better opinion and regain my lost ground. My diligence was soon followed by success, and success encouraged me to fresh exertions.

I presume the teachers of grammar do not expect boys of a very early age to understand it as a body of rules, but merely as an exercise of memory; yet it is well to imprint it on their memories, that they may more readily apply to it as they advance in their acquaintance with the language. I had naturally a good memory, and practice added such a facility of getting by heart, that in my repetitions, when we challenged for places, I entered the lists with all possible advantages, and soon found myself able to break a lance with the very best of my competitors. The good man in the plaid gown now began to regard me with less than his usual indifference, and my early star was evidently in the ascendant. Such were to me the happy consequences of my worthy master's seasonable admonition.

After the decease of Mrs. Bentley, my mother, whose devotion to her father was return.

ed by the warmest affection on his part, passed much of her time, as my father did of his, at Cambridge; there I also passed my holidays, and the undescribable gratification those delightful seasons gave me, hath left traces of the times long past and the persons now dead, that can only be effaced by death, and of their surviving even that I should be loth to lose the hope. I was become capable of understanding my grandfather to be the great man he really was, and began to listen to him with attention, and treasure up his sayings in my mind. I was admitted to dine at his table, had my seat next to his chair, served him in many little offices and went upon his errands with a promptitude and alacrity, that shewed what pride I took in such commissions, and tempted his good nature to invent occasions for employing me.

One day I full well remember my old master Kinsman walked into the room, and was welcomed by my grandfather with the cordiality natural to him. In the mean time my heart fluttered with alarm and dread of that report, which he had once threatened to prefer against me nothing could be further from his