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nature. Will not this remorse over-balance all that you once esteemed as pleasure in the bye-path? Most probably your own estimate of sensations and joys, which you once pronounced delightful, will greatly alter. Coming to an object, and receding from it, generally present different, perhaps contradictory ideas. A noble lord, who had figured in the higher circles, who had tried all he wished, and with powers of enjoyment superior to most, spake of his indulgences with regret, when, after years of vanity, he stated his feelings thus: "I have been behind the scenes; I have seen what is the stuff that life is made of, and I loath the tawdry deceptions for which I bartered my present and my eternal happiness." It is a sad exchange when a man barters his peace of mind for any thing, especially if it be for a bauble.

But let the best be supposed, though a very unlikely case. Let us imagine that the deviation proposed will actually remain the only one through life; does it not strike at once as a great pity, that to so fair a life one error

should attach. The whiter is the garment, the more easily discerned, and the more offensive, is one single spot. Can your own mind be ignorant of it, however secret? Can your own conscience forget, or your own reviving honourable principles (for such we are supposing), ever approve it. If, indeed, that delinquency remain, as hoped, the only one, your recovery must be owing either to the interference of friends, or to the regaining of your own feelings, the perception of the precipice towards which you were approaching, or to the actual sufferings occasioned by the fall. To which of these will you voluntarily submit? Nay, recollect yourself in time, and do not deform yourself for life with a lameness which will always occasion halting, nor debase your honourable escutcheon by any sinister baton. Do not let down your own dignity for so small a gratification; do not grieve your best friends, by compliances which must lower you in their esteem. If you reckon yourself sure of their affection, of their support, and are therefore careless of their approbation, I am afraid your deviations have not been occasional;

nothing but habitual vice can bring the mind to this. I am afraid all remonstrance with you will now be in vain; your enemies havė obtained fast hold of you. Depend upon it, however they may praise your adroitness and extol your courage, in snapping, at their suggestion, so many bands, you are yet despised by them.

Do applauding spectators approve?-never, no, never. Be not deceived by their shouts ; they think you a fool for desiring such praises as theirs. Is there no one who might happen to catch you in those moments, whose mere presence would disconcert you? As at the Roman games once, the vilest of the people refused to proceed, while Cato was present. Pass not by this hint carelessly. Think whose eye would appal you most; friend of your father's, who once had better hopes of you; your tutor; your minister; or even some young friend, with whom you were on intimacy, in days of better feelings, with whom you are, perhaps, still on friendly terms, though, thus discovered, that must all cease.

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The simple answer to such questions will decide, if you wish to come to a decision, whether the deviation adds to your respectability, whether you were wise even to begin it; whether every principle of honour, of interest, of duty, of character, does not call upon you, instantly to snap at once all your growing bonds, to retrace your steps, and gain, if possible, the vantage ground, which in so unwise a manner you have lost.

CHAP. XII.

ECONOMY.

THERE are few things which have stronger claims on your daily attention than the management of your finances. It is most likely, that at school you learnt nothing on this head, unless by now and then an admonitory letter from home, which you attributed, not to the kindness and wisdom of your friends, but, most unjustly, to ill humour or a niggardly disposition. If they supplied you without any regular allowance, if they administered to your caprices without check, then the charge of unkindness has some foundation; it was the most hurtful conduct towards you they could adopt, and will have baleful influence on you for a long while.

Under such management you must be quite ignorant of the value of money. If you refuse

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