His education therefore had been but
indifferently attended to; and after being taken from a country
school, at which he had been boarded, the young gentleman was
suffered to be his own master in the subsequent branches of
literature, with some assistance from the parson of the parish in
languages and philosophy, and from the exciseman in arithmetic and
book-keeping. One of his guardians, indeed, who, in his youth, had
been an inhabitant of the Temple, set him to read Coke upon
Lyttelton: a book which is very properly put into the hands of
beginners in that science, as its simplicity is accommodated to
their understandings, and its size to their inclination. He
profited but little by the perusal; but it was not without its use
in the family: for his maiden aunt applied it commonly to the
laudable purpose of pressing her rebellious linens to the folds she
had allotted them.
There were particularly two ways of increasing his fortune, which
might have occurred to people of less foresight than the counsellors
we have mentioned. One of these was, the prospect of his succeeding
to an old lady, a distant relation, who was known to be possessed of
a very large sum in the stocks: but in this their hopes were
disappointed; for the young man was so untoward in his disposition,
that, notwithstanding the instructions he daily received, his visits
rather tended to alienate than gain the good-will of his kinswoman.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25