18 



habits of birds. You can not have forgotten what care- 

 ful observation, what comprehensive knowledge, what 

 lively fancy, what amiable feeling, and what powers of 

 description, the lecture discovered, and how much it ex- 

 cited our admiration; and none the less because it was 

 read with down-cast eyes and a trembling hand. The 

 grace which thus adorned his earliest youth was not 

 tarnished in his subsequent life. As years advanced, he 

 could not be insensible that his condition was above the 

 common rank; but he affected no superiority on that 

 account. Returning from abroad, where he had been 

 conversant with people of rank, and received from them 

 nattering attentions, he was, no less than before, conde- 

 scending to men of low estate. In his professional 

 course, rising at once into eminence known, applauded 

 and sought for almost throughout the country he yet re- 

 tained his simplicity of character and manners to the last. 

 I need not dwell on these things. I mention them, only 

 to remind you of what you must have observed, and per- 

 suade you to copy what you must have admired. 



6. Nor was he less remarkable for his choice of worthy 

 objects of pursuit. From his early years, he had no 

 relish for low gratifications. It required no pains to 

 keep him from the smoking, chewing, drinking habits 

 into which so many lads eagerly run ; nor from the vul- 

 gar profaneness which they are apt to indulge nor 



