r advance a handsome
consideration for the task he undertook.

Nothing could be better judged than this piece of liberality; the
assistant was actually a man of learning, probity, and good sense; and
though obliged by the scandalous administration of fortune to act in
the character of an inferior teacher, had, by his sole capacity and
application, brought the school to that degree of reputation, which
it never could have obtained from the talents of its superior. He had
established an economy, which, though regular, was not at all severe,
by enacting a body of laws suited to the age and comprehension of every
individual; and each transgressor was fairly tried by his peers, and
punished according to the verdict of the jury. No boy was scourged for
want of apprehension, but a spirit of emulation was raised by well-timed
praise and artful comparison, and maintained by a distribution of small
prizes, which were adjudged to those who signalized themselves either by
their industry, sobriety, or genius.

This tutor, whose name was Jennings, began with Perry, according to his
constant maxim, by examining the soil; that is, studying his temper,
in order to consult the bias of his disposition, which was strangely
perverted by the absurd discipline he had undergone. He found him in a
state of sullen insensibility, which the child had gradually contracted
in a long course of stupefying correction; and at first he was not in
the least actuated by that commendation which animated the rest of
his school-fellows; nor was it in the power of reproach to excite his
ambition, which had been buried, as it were, in the grave of disgrace;
the usher, therefore, had recourse to contemptuous neglect, with
which he affected to treat this stubborn spirit; foreseeing that if he
retained any seeds of sentiment, this weather would infallibly raise
them into vegetation; his judgment was justified by the event; the boy
in a little time began to make observations; he perceived the marks
of distinction with which virtue was rewarded, grew ashamed of the
despicable figure he himself made among his companions, who, far from
courting, rather shunned his conversation, and actually pined at his own
want of importance.

Mr. Jennings saw and rejoiced at his mortification, which he suffered
to proceed as far as possible, without endangering his health. The child
lost all relish for diversion, loathed his food, grew pensive, solitary,
and was frequently found