communicant, were he to become
one then, it would be imputed to an ostentatious display of religious zeal
arising altogether from his elevated station. Accordingly he afterwards
never came on the morning of Sacrament Sunday, tho' at other times, a
constant attendant in the morning."

Nelly Custis, too, tells us that Washington always "stood during the
devotional part of the service," and Bishop White states that "his
behavior was always serious and attentive; but, as your letter seems to
intend an inquiry on the point of kneeling during the service, I owe it to
the truth to declare, that I never saw him in the said attitude." Probably
his true position is described by Madison, who is quoted as saying that he
did "not suppose that Washington had ever attended to the arguments for
Christianity, and for the different systems of religion, or in fact that
he had formed definite opinions on the subject. But he took these things
as he found them existing, and was constant in his observances of worship
according to the received forms of the Episcopal Church, in which he was
brought up."

If there was proof needed that it is mind and not education which pushes a
man to the front, it is to be found in the case of Washington. Despite his
want of education, he had, so Bell states, "an excellent understanding."
Patrick Henry is quoted as saying of the members of the Congress of 1774--
the body of which Adams claimed that "every man in it is a great man, an
orator, a critic, a statesman"--that "if you speak of solid information
and sound judgment Colonel Washington is unquestionably the greatest man
on the floor;" while Jefferson asserted that "his mind was great and
powerful, without being of the very first order; his penetration strong,
though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or Locke; and as far as he
saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little
aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion."

IV

RELATIONS WITH THE FAIR SEX

The book from which Washington derived almost the whole of his education
warned its readers,--

"Young Men have ever more a special care That Womanish Allurements prove
not a snare;"

but, however carefully the lad studied the rest, this particular
admonition took little root in his mind. There can be no doubt that
Washington during the whole of his life had a soft heart for women, and
especially for good-looking ones, and both in his pers