This calamity, I think, had been predicted by the Astrologer; and thus his confidence, which, like most people of the period, he had freely given to the science, was riveted and confirmed.

The utmost care, therefore, was taken to carry into effect the severe and almost ascetic plan of education which the sage had enjoined.

A tutor of the strictest principles was employed to superintend the youth's education; he was surrounded by domestics of the most established character, and closely watched and looked after by the anxious father himself.
The years of infancy, childhood, and boyhood passed as the father could have wished.

A young Nazarene could not have been bred up with more rigour.

All that was evil was withheld from his observation: he only heard what was pure in precept, he only witnessed what was worthy in practice.
But when the boy began to be lost in the youth, the attentive father saw cause for alarm.