The amount of the legacy is now ascertained. The stock, however, in
which a great part of the money is vested being shut, the transfer to my
father cannot be made for some time; and till this is done, my mother
cannot be persuaded that we have yet got anything to trust to--an
unfortunate notion which renders her very unhappy. The old gentleman
himself takes no interest now in the business. He has got his mind at
ease by the payment of all the legacies; and having fallen in with some
of the members of that political junto, the Saints, who are worldly
enough to link, as often as they can, into their association, the
powerful by wealth or talent, his whole time is occupied in assisting to
promote their humbug; and he has absolutely taken it into his head, that
the attention he receives from them for his subscriptions is on account
of his eloquence as a preacher, and that hitherto he has been altogether
in an error with respect to his own abilities. The effect of this is
abundantly amusing; but the source of it is very evident. Like most
people who pass a sequestered life, he had formed an exaggerated opinion
of public characters; and on seeing them in reality so little superior to
the generality of mankind, he imagines that he was all the time nearer to
their level than he had ventured to suppose; and the discovery has placed
him on the happiest terms with himself. It is impossible that I can
respect his manifold excellent qualities and goodness of heart more than
I do; but there is an innocency in this simplicity, which, while it often
compels me to smile, makes me feel towards him a degree of tenderness,
somewhat too familiar for that filial reverence that is due from a son.

Perhaps, however, you will think me scarcely less under the influence of
a similar delusion when I tell you, that I have been somehow or other
drawn also into an association, not indeed so public or potent as that of
the Saints, but equally persevering in the objects for which it has been
formed. The drift of the Saints, as far as I can comprehend the matter,
is to procure the advancement to political power of men distinguished for
the purity of their lives, and the integrity of their conduct; and in
that way, I presume, they expect to effect the accomplishment of that
blessed epoch, the Millennium, when the Saints are to rule the whole
earth. I do not mean to say that this is their decided and determined
object; I only infer, that it is the