Introduction. 



Harrow, Westminster, Rugby, and all other 

 schools) ; but in placing this book on your 

 school-desk, allow me to say that it is no 

 good having it there through the long school 

 hours unless you open it, read it, and deeply 

 ponder over it ; and more, my dear boys, let 

 me pray that you will take it home with you, 

 and, casting aside your usual holiday task, 

 study it well, and, as far as possible, actively 

 put in practice what I am going to try and 

 teach you. Some fathers may wish their 

 sons to enter on a more humble course of 

 life, but this I rather doubt. However, 'should 

 they do so, it will be only so much the better 

 for those who take it up : there will be more 

 room for them. Most mothers, I fear, will 

 object to it on the ground that rats and 

 ferrets don't smell nice ; but this objection is 

 not reasonable. They might as well say that 

 the whiff of a fox on a soft December morn- 

 ing as you ride to covert is not delicious ! 



