virgin till it was almost worn out; upon which the priest transported the old virgin to a new church twelve miles off, and placed upon the pedestal a sprightly, gaudydressed new image of the virgin. But such was the superstitions of the people, and so true their absolute worship of the image itself, that they actually passed their church and travelled every Sunday fifteen miles to pay their devotions to their old acquaintance-for, they said, the new virgin had not half the power of the old; and the minister would have lost all his congregation, if he had not fetched back the old madonna image, and erected her in her usual old, tawdry, ragged finery, upon the altar !”? "It is wonderful," said Charles, "that in the present enlightened age, Englishmen should be so besotted as to suffer themselves to be beguiled into the practice of popish superstitions, and a belief of the presumptuous pretensions of the Church of Rome." " But it is a fact," said Rowland," that the number of papists is increasing. Large chapels are building throughout the kingdom, and their proselytes are numerous. In Lancashire there are some parishes with not a single Protestant.

"What is it that attracts ?" " That is easily answered," said Charles; "the splendour of their dresses, the tragicomic performance of their ceremonies, their imposing processions, their pantomimic movements, have the effect of a theatre or a morris dance to attract an audienc, and the many attitudes of mock devotion made by the priests, persuade the people that they are sincere; while the attendants, like the hypocrites of old, putting on a sad countenance, give the idea to the multitude that their creed must be true. Then, again, the great indulgence granted by a corrupt system, which allows half the sabbath to be spent in play and vanity, and confers pardon, at small fixed prices, upon all persons, of whatever sins

"But surely," said Rowland,

"the

they are guilty." more rational cannot believe that they are pardoned !" "The fact is," said Charles, "that men in general seldom think of religion at all. My friend Hadley, when in London, told me that he met with a very sensible gentleman, with whom, when he came to talk of religion, he found religion was perfectly a mystery. He said,' he never thought about it; that all their family paid a salary to a particular priest to pray for them all, and that he spared them the trouble of praying for themselves, and that he thought they should all do well at last. The human mind, when subject to disturbance from reflection, is ready to catch at any delusion to soothe it, and is glad to take some opiate at hand in general use to lull the conscience asleep. People go on, from century to century, in the ways of error which their fathers have trod; whereas a stranger to the delusion discovers it at once. A friend of mine told me an anecdote of two young converts in India, who had received the sacrament at the hands of a priest, after he had taken pains to convince them that Jesus Christ was in the very wafer they were about to eat. The next day the same priest was catechising them again, and told them that Jesus Christ was alive in heaven. That is impossible," said one of the converts, for did you not tell me yesterday, that I ate Jesus Christ in the bread; how then can he be alive to day, if I ate him yesterday?'" "When the Pope denies the Scriptures to the laity," said Rowland, "it is not because there is any danger of injury from them, but through his own dread of its power. Mahomet forbade wine, because it would unnerve his soldiery. The despotic sultan discourages learning, because knowledge is power. Leo the Tenth forbade the laity the use of the Scriptures, because they detect the falsehoods of the superstition on which the pontifical hierarchy rested a s its basis.

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CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE COLLEGE TUTOR-THE REV. MR. UPRIGHT AND MR. KEMPSON, THE YOUNG CONVERT.

In describing the career of the young students at Oxford, I must not forget to mention their worthy tutor, the Rev. Mr. Upright. He was a little man, with an eye the most keen and penetrating, but with a countenance peculiarly unassuming, pleasant, and benevolent. He had spent almost all his life at college, but yet knew much of mankind from study and observation, in the frequent intercourse which he had with society, and with a numerous circle of pupils, whose dispositions he accurately marked while he watched over their studies, and ascertained the mode in which they employed their time. As occasion required, he was never sparing of his censure; he knew how to speak in few, but pointed words, which were as goads to the dilatory; he used arguments which convinced, and gave the cordial of encouragement to the diffident—

"He tried each art, reproved each dull delay,

Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way."

A perfect example of exactness and punctuality himself, he rigidly required it in others; the omission of a college

band would draw down his frown, and perhaps be followed with a task, if the neglect were repeated. An exercise, a theme, a declamation, which required only a few of his interlineations of correction and improvement, would be sure to be followed with the vexatious addition of " I will thank you, sir, to copy this afresh for public delivery in the hall!" What an annoying task! Often would he surprise his pupils with an unexpected rap at their room door. With the agility of youth, he would mount up to the attic story, rap and enter; and if the fire was sinking into embers, the hearth unbrushed, the room in disorder, or no books and papers on the table, indicating study and attention; or if he discovered books of mere light reading, which only wasted time, a lecture was sure to follow on the importance of neatness and order, on the value and improvement of time, and the due restraint of the fancy, and the necessity of mental discipline, study, and exertion.

Yet, with all his strictness, Mr. Upright always treated his pupils with the greatest kindness, and invited them all, in their turn, to his house to tea, where Mrs. Upright, with her blooming niece, always presided at the table. A stately address, mixed with much urbanity, gave Mrs. Upright much consequence among the young men, who always paid their court to her; and, by way of peculiar favour, she, and her husband, and niece, together with a favourite old lady, occasionally paid a tea visit to the students in return.

This was a practice which gave a peculiar charm to this college. The next week they had informed Charles that they meant, on the Wednesday evening, to take tea with him. Rowland was, of course, invited to meet them, as was Kempson, Plewet, particular friends of Charles. At six o'clock, not long after Charles had returned from chapel, the expected party arrived: the

tea-things were already neatly arranged by Richard, the scout, with all the necessary apparatus of tea, sugar, bread and butter, cream, &c. “I hope,” said Charles, “you will make us, Mrs. Upright, as good a cup of tea as you always make at your own house, where I find it the strongest and the best that I drink any where."

"Do you not think, however," said Clinton, "to Mr. Upright," that strong tea is unwholesome?" "I do not know what it may be," said Mr. Upright, "but I like it as strong as it can be made, and as warm as I can drink it." "You are like Mr. Newton," said Charles, "who told me, last midsummer, that whatever they may say against tea, he could only say he had drank it strong, and unadulterated with milk and sugar, for fifty years, and he was now upwards of seventy years old, and it had never injured him!"

The party, after tea, proposed a walk, which was always the custom in the summer season. They sallied forth, and took Magdalen College in their way, and strolled leisurely along its classic shades, with the stream purling at their feet along the meandering walk. "That," said Mr. Upand this is now called

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right, was Addison's room; Addison's Walk; here many a line was written, and many a thought engendered, as he walked under, these classic bowers; here, perhaps, he wrote that exquisite verse on the miracle of Cana in Galilee, which was given as a subject for Latin verse by the head of the college

"Vidit et erubuit lympha pudica Deum."

The verse was given in on a sheet of paper; one single verse, instead of a piece. The tutor looked at it; it struck him exceedingly. "The task consists," he said, "of only one verse, but it is worth a thousand !"