Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter /5 



of eight years he was fitted to enter a boarding school 

 at Tullamore. 



Previous to entrusting him to the care of 

 strangers, his mother exerted herself to fortify his 

 piety by preparing him for his first communion. 

 He presented himself at that holy table where he 

 was to receive his Redeemer into his young heart, 

 with a piety so remarkable as to produce an effect 

 which they have never forgotten, upon the older 

 friends who witnessed his reception of the sacrament. 



Influenced then by his happiness, by the love 

 that burned in his soul, and in correspondence with 

 the graces vouchsafed to him, he expressed his 

 determination to live henceforth for God alone, to 

 enter the holy order of the priesthood, and he laid 

 his talents with a self-denying humility at the foot 

 of the cross, to be consecrated to Christ. 



Immediately after having made his first com- 

 munion, he left home for Tullamore, where he entered 

 the Academy of Rev. Mr. Deran, a retired Presby- 

 terian clergyman, and one of the best classical 

 scholars in Ireland. Here he commenced his classical 

 and mathematical studies. After remaining about 

 two years with Mr. Deran, he entered the Academy 

 of John and Thomas Fitzgerald, kept in the same 

 town. In this school he completed his course of 

 study preparatory to entering the College of 

 Maynooth. With this purpose, in his sixteenth 

 year, he stood and passed in a most satisfactory 

 manner his public examination. But Providence 

 had marked out for him another destiny. 



