ese insinuations made the greater impression as they were delivered
with many expressions of friendship and concern. The young gentleman
was not so raw, but that he could perceive the solidity of Mr.
Jolter's advice, to which he promised to conform, because his pride was
interested in the affair, and he considered his own reformation as the
only means of avoiding that infamy which even in idea he could not bear.

His governor, finding him so reasonable, profited by these moments of
reflection; and, in order to prevent a relapse, proposed that he
should engage in some delightful study that would agreeably amuse his
imagination, and gradually detach him from those connections which had
involved him in so many troublesome adventures. For this purpose, he,
with many rapturous encomiums, recommended the mathematics, as yielding
more rational and sensible pleasures to a youthful fancy than any other
subject of contemplation; and actually began to read Euclid with him
that same afternoon.

Peregrine entered upon this branch of learning with all that warmth of
application which boys commonly yield on the first change of study; but
he had scarce advanced beyond the Pons Asinorum, when his ardour
abated; the test of truth by demonstration did not elevate him to those
transports of joy with which his preceptor had regaled his expectation;
and before he arrived at the forty-seventh proposition, he began to
yawn drearily, make abundance of wry faces, and thought himself but
indifferently paid for his attention, when he shared the vast discovery
of Pythagoras, and understood that the square of the hypotenuse was
equal to the squares of the other two sides of a right-angled triangle.
He was ashamed, however, to fail in his undertaking, and persevered with
great industry, until he had finished the first four books, acquired
plane trigonometry, with the method of algebraical calculation, and
made himself well acquainted with the principles of surveying. But no
consideration could prevail upon him to extend his inquiries farther
in this science; and he returned with double relish to his former
avocations, like a stream, which, being dammed, accumulates more force,
and, bursting over its mounds, rushes down with double impetuosity.

Mr. Jolter saw with astonishment and chagrin, but could not resist the
torrent. His behaviour was now no other than a series of license and
effrontery; prank succeeded prank, and outrage followed outrage with