It has engendered or confirmed in him a habit of putting off--and trusting to this, that, and the other chance, without knowing what chance--and dismissing everything as unsettled, uncertain, and confused.

The character of much older and steadier people may be even changed by the circumstances surrounding them.

It would be too much to expect that a boy's, in its formation, should be the subject of such influences and escape them." I felt this to be true; though if I may venture to mention what I thought besides, I thought it much to be regretted that Richard's education had not counteracted those influences or directed his character.

He had been eight years at a public school and had learnt, I understood, to make Latin verses of several sorts in the most admirable manner.

But I never heard that it had been anybody's business to find out what his natural bent was, or where his failings lay, or to adapt any kind of knowledge to HIM.