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of your nerves, or any suspicions of their blink- 

 ing under the pull of the trigger, I must require 

 of you an ingenuous submission of yourself to 

 the test above offered, in order to be satisfied 

 how far you are able to stand fire, or otherwise ; 

 and to seek an immediate correction, if neces- 

 sary, by the means there indicated. At any 

 rate, you may be assured, I shall not impose 

 on you the mortification of taking the field in 

 that state of negative equipment, in which the 

 judicious author above quoted sends his pupil 

 forth among the coveys, not much in humour 

 perhaps, but in the high road to improvement. 

 With the spring of the game I certainly can 

 not but suppose you too familiar, to retain any 

 portion of that flutter, which would best be 

 conquered thus. It is for these reasons, that I 

 am not going to put you upon plodding your 

 way upwards again through this business of 

 the lower classes; and for another, almost 

 equally strong, you have not the time to spare : 

 from you my rules must receive all their exem- 

 plification upon actual service. So much the 

 stronger, therefore, is the necessity for my say- 

 ing to you, as I should to a pupil of some pro- 

 ficiency, but who feels a dissatisfaction at the 

 uncertainty and indecision of his shot, that / 

 can not abate you one tittle of the drill: it is 



