xlviii MEMOIR. 



tions upon vision ; which I would have 

 inscribed to the memory of Robert Wells 

 my father, in gratitude, for the great exer- 

 tions which he had made to give me the 

 education of a scholar and a gentleman, 

 when in narrow circumstances himself, 

 into which he had fallen, in consequence 

 of the American rebellion . 



What I shall next say will no doubt be 

 held very ridiculous. I lived till I was 

 near eleven years old, close upon the har- 

 bour of a large sea-port in America, and 

 by this means associated much with black- 

 guard sailor boys. To this I attribute a 

 practice of swearing, of which I have from 

 the time of being a child, been frequently 

 guilty, when my feelings have been agi- 

 tated, and even sometimes when no excuse 

 of this kind has existed. 



