He told me frankly enough that his father was a clergyman who would have taught him well, but that he, Will Atkins, despised all instruction and correction; and by his brutish conduct cut the thread of all his father's comforts and shortened his days, for that he broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural return for the most affectionate treatment a father ever gave.
In what he said there seemed so much sincerity of repentance, that it painfully affected me.

I could not but reflect that I, too, had shortened the life of a good, tender father by my bad conduct and obstinate self-will.

I was, indeed, so surprised with what he had told me, that I thought, instead of my going about to teach and instruct him, the man was made a teacher and instructor to me in a most unexpected manner.
I laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly affected with it, and said to me, "Did I not say, sir, that when this man was converted he would preach to us all?
I tell you, sir, if this one man be made a true penitent, there will be no need of me; he will make Christians of all in the island."-- But having a little composed myself, I renewed my discourse with Will Atkins.

"But, Will," said I, "how comes the sense of this matter to touch you just now ?" _W.A._--Sir, you have set me about a work that has struck a dart though my very soul; I have been talking about God and religion to my wife, in order, as you directed me, to make a Christian of her, and she has preached such a sermon to me as I shall never forget while I live.
_R.C._--No, no, it is not your wife has preached to you; but when you were moving religious arguments to her, conscience has flung them back upon you.
_W.A._--Ay, sir, with such force as is not to be resisted.
_R.C._--Pray, Will, let us know what passed between you and your wife; for I know something of it already.
_W.A._--Sir, it is impossible to give you a full account of it; I am too full to hold it, and yet have no tongue to express it; but let her have said what she will, though I cannot give you an account of it, this I can tell you, that I have resolved to amend and reform my life.
_R.C._--But tell us some of it: how did you begin, Will?
For this has been an extraordinary case, that is certain.

She has preached a sermon, indeed, if she has wrought this upon you.
_W.A._--Why, I first told her the nature of our laws about marriage, and what the reasons were that men and women were obliged to enter into such compacts as it was neither in the power of one nor other to break; that otherwise, order and justice could not be maintained, and men would run from their wives, and abandon their children, mix confusedly with one another, and neither families be kept entire, nor inheritances be settled by legal descent.
_R.C._--You talk like a civilian, Will.