Better, far better, that they torment him by ungrateful cravings than that he should have to repent having satiated them by criminal indulgence.' The dispositions of the young man were so excellent that he combated, by reason and religion, the fits of gloom which at times overcast his mind, and it was not till he attained the commencement of his twenty-first year that they assumed a character which made his father tremble for the consequences.

It seemed as if the gloomiest and most hideous of mental maladies was taking the form of religious despair.

Still the youth was gentle, courteous, affectionate, and submissive to his father's will, and resisted with all his power the dark suggestions which were breathed into his mind, as it seemed by some emanation of the Evil Principle, exhorting him, like the wicked wife of Job, to curse God and die.
The time at length arrived when he was to perform what was then thought a long and somewhat perilous journey, to the mansion of the early friend who had calculated his nativity.

His road lay through several places of interest, and he enjoyed the amusement of travelling more than he himself thought would have been possible.

Thus he did not reach the place of his destination till noon on the day preceding his birthday.