d brought into the world about six months before
the intelligence arrived; so that her care and affection being otherwise
engrossed, the praise of Perry was the less greedily devoured. The
abatement of her fondness was an advantage to his education, which would
have been retarded, and perhaps ruined, by pernicious indulgence, and
preposterous interposition, had her love considered him as an only
child; whereas her concern being now diverted to another object,
that shared, at least, one-half of her affection, he was left to the
management of his preceptor, who tutored him according to his own
plan, without any let or interruption. Indeed all his sagacity and
circumspection were but barely sufficient to keep the young gentleman
in order; for now that he had won the palm of victory from his rivals in
point of scholarship, his ambition dilated, and he was seized with the
desire of subjecting the whole school by the valour of his arm. Before
he could bring his project to bear, innumerable battles were fought with
various success; every day a bloody nose and complaint were presented
against him, and his own visage commonly bore some livid marks of
obstinate contention. At length, however, he accomplished his aim; his
adversaries were subdued, his prowess acknowledged, and he obtained the
laurel in war as well is in wit. Thus triumphant, he was intoxicated
with success: his pride rose in proportion to his power and, in spite
of all the endeavours of Jennings, who practised every method he could
invent for curbing his licentious conduct, without depressing his
spirit, he contracted a large proportion of insolence, which series of
misfortunes that happened to him in the sequel could scarce effectually
tame. Nevertheless there was a fund of good nature and generosity in his
composition; and though he established a tyranny among his comrades, the
tranquility of his reign was maintained by the love rather than by the
fear of his subjects.

In the midst of all this enjoyment of empire he never once violated that
respectful awe with which the usher had found means to inspire him; but
he by no means preserved the same regard for the principal master, an
old illiterate German quack, who had formerly practised corn-cutting
among the quality, and sold cosmetic washes to the ladies, together with
teeth-powders, hair-dyeing liquors, prolific elixirs, and tinctures to
sweeten the breath. These nostrums, recommended by the art of cringing,
i