he was an orphan, and sole heir to the title and estates of a very wealthy baronet.

The deceased baronet, his father, committed the young Sir Charles Bright to the care of a tutor, every way qualified, as he imagined, to sustain that important office. He was a scholar and a gentleman; all the baronet's friends highly commended the choice he had made; and none doubted but that under such a preceptor, Sir Charles would grow up the man of learning and virtue. The very liberal pecuniary terms on which the youth was placed with his tutor, Mr. D-, precluded the necessity of his attention to any other pupils, which for many years preceding he had been in the habit of instructing; and he felt happy in being thus enabled to exert the whole of his abilities in promoting the instruction of one likely to fill an exalted station in society.

As his pupil was extremely fond of learning, and possessed a more docile disposition than is commonly found in youth, it was not necessary for Mr. D-- to exert that severe discipline, which too frequently, whilst it enforces obedience, alienates affection. He had also the happy art of distinguishing between the weakness of the head, and the obstinacy of the will. He never proposed any branch of learning to his pupil, till he was convinced his intellectual powers were equal to

its attainment. By this means he escaped many difficulties which less sagacious preceptors meet with. He carefully observed the proper and most agreeable seasons to convey instruction: and often, without his pupil's knowledge, desisted from enforcing application, when he saw his mind bent upon amusement and relaxation. It is true, this last practice of Mr. D---'s should not be adopted indiscriminately, but must depend entirely upon the disposition of the scholar. In the present instance it was attended with the happiest effects. Thus studied in temper, and judiciously initiated to the labour of learning, it was not surprizing that the teacher and the taught should be on the most agreeable terms with each other. The young Sir Charles regarded his preceptor with affection, as well as respect; and lost, in the idea of a friend and companion, every unpleasant sensation the character of a tutor too often creates.

Learned men have often peculiar modes of thinking. And commonly received maxims, on which the generality of the world act, and suppose of utility, are by them sometimes pronounced absurd, and erroneous. Of these maxims, generally received, as proper and beneficial, that of instilling religious principles into the minds of youth, was by Mr. D--- highly reprobated. On this subject, he contended the youthful mind

should be left free to form its own opinions, and kept as clear as possible from the influence of prejudice to any system, or modes of arguing upon any set of religious ideas.

The love of virtue, said Mr. D--, is inherent in the human breast; and as she is found not exclusively confined, to any set of men, or any system of theological dogmas, the youth, when arrived to years of mature judgment, must yield or refuse accordance to the latter, as his reason may dictate: under the guidance of this, he will necessarily discern truth.

The circle in which Mr. D moved, was disposed to view all his opinions as axioms, and he was never urged by any one to prove that thé love of virtue was inherently seated in the human mind, nor puzzled with questions respecting the probability of the passions obscuring the light of truth, and weakening the strength of reason.

Mr. D--- thought himself peculiarly fortunate on the present occasion, in the pupil committed to his care. Even at the early age of ten years, there are those, who have received from parents or friends such instructions, as have deeply impressed their minds in favour of revealed religion. The young Sir Charles was entirely free from all bias on this subject. The Bible was a book he had never read. The Catechism was a lesson he had never learned: and the church was

a building he had never entered, except on weekdays to read the monumental inscriptions. The Baronet, his father, was far from thinking it necessary to honour that place by his attendance; his son was a person of too much consequence to be sent there with servants; and Lady Bright, who used occasionally to attend divine service, died before her son was quite two years old.

When Sir Charles had attained his twelfth year, he expressed a wish to make the tour of England. To this Mr. D--- had no objection, and it afforded him an excellent opportunity for Conveying instruction. A variety of subjects presented themselves, on which he failed not to descant. The curiosities of nature and art, and the peculiarities attached to the different inhabitants of each county through which they travelled, furnished matter for agreeable and useful conversation. No subject was forgotten, no theme unnoticed, except-religion. The tour finished, and Sir Charles and his tutor returned home, he entered on the study of History. Now, for the first time, he discovered, the considerable importance religion had acquired among all nations, barbarous and civilized. The Pagan, the Brahmin, and the Mahometan, became by turns the objects of his surprize and indignation. He turned from the view of their shocking superstitions and cruelties, in the hope of beholding

reverse.

in the religion of his native country a pleasing The first prospect the history of England presented of Christianity, necessarily disgusted him, for it was Christianity in her corrupted state. It was true, the historian confessed it to be Christianity corrupted; but then he took no pains to point out the strong shades of difference between the true and perverted, much less did he take all opportunities of recommending the Christian religion, in its pure and primitive state, to the approbation of his readers.

The characters and conduct of some of the first converts to Protestantism,particularly among the Puritans, as delineated, and in many instances doubtless justly delineated, by the historian, did not tend to raise any exalted ideas to the advantage of that system over Popery, in the mind of the young student. He beheld the crafty politician, the ambitious statesman, and the self-interested individual in private life, all zealously contending for a new set of principles, which appeared to possess no operative power to improve their own moral conduct. A clear representation of those principles, and the good effect they were calculated to produce, would have thrown great light upon the subject, and the reader might have discriminated between the errors of the man and those of the system for which he was contending. Had some one, well-informed upon the subject, came forward and enumerated (which might very