ck.

_Er._ Say you so? Were they in Hopes of a Prey?

_Ga._ They set upon both me and my Parents with a great many crafty
Persuasions; but I have taken a Resolution not to give my Mind either to
Matrimony or Priesthood, nor to be a Monk, nor to any Kind of Life out
of which I can't extricate myself, before I know myself very well.

_Er._ When will that be?

_Ga._ Perhaps never. But before the 28th Year of ones Age, nothing
should be resolved on.

_Er._ Why so?

_Ga._ Because I hear every where, so many Priests, Monks and married Men
lamenting that they hurried themselves rashly into Servitude.

_Er._ You are very cautious not to be catch'd.

_Ga._ In the mean Time I take a special Care of three Things.

_Er._ What are they?

_Ga._ First of all to make a good Progress in Morality, and if I can't
do that, I am resolv'd to maintain an unspotted Innocence and good
Name; and last of all I furnish myself with Languages and Sciences that
will be of Use in any Kind of Life.

_Er._ But do you neglect the Poets?

_Ga._ Not wholly, but I read generally the chastest of them, and if I
meet with any Thing that is not modest, I pass that by, as _Ulysses_
passed by the _Sirens_, stopping his Ears.

_Er._ To what Kind of Study do you chiefly addict your self? To Physic,
the Common or Civil Law, or to Divinity? For Languages, the Sciences and
Philosophy are all conducive to any Profession whatsoever.

_Ga._ I have not yet thoroughly betaken myself to any one particularly,
but I take a Taste of all, that I be not wholly ignorant of any; and the
rather, that having tasted of all I may the better chuse that I am
fittest for. Medicine is a certain Portion in whatsoever Land a Man is;
the Law is the Way to Preferment: But I like Divinity the best, saving
that the Manners of some of the Professors of it, and the bitter
Contentions that are among them, displease me.

_Er._ He won't be very apt to fall that goes so warily along. Many in
these Days are frighted from Divinity, because they are afraid they
should not be found in the Catholick Faith, because they see no
Principle of Religion, but what is called in Question.

_Ga._ I believe firmly what I read in the holy Scriptures, and the
Creed, called the Apostles, and I don't trouble my Head any farther: I
leave the rest to be disputed and defined by the Clergy, if they please;
and if any Thing is in common Use with Christians that is not repugnant
to the holy Scriptures, I o