s, or perhaps of its vices.
In short, preserve him as far as possible from all sin, save that of
which too great a portion belongs to all the fallen race of Adam. With
the approach of his twenty-first birthday comes the crisis of his fate.
If he survive it, he will be happy and prosperous on earth, and a chosen
vessel among those elected for heaven. But if it be otherwise--' The
Astrologer stopped, and sighed deeply.

'Sir,' replied the parent, still more alarmed than before, 'your words
are so kind, your advice so serious, that I will pay the deepest
attention to your behests; but can you not aid me farther in this most
important concern? Believe me, I will not be ungrateful.'

'I require and deserve no gratitude for doing a good action,' said the
stranger, 'in especial for contributing all that lies in my power to save
from an abhorred fate the harmless infant to whom, under a singular
conjunction of planets, last night gave life. There is my address; you
may write to me from time to time concerning the progress of the boy in
religious knowledge. If he be bred up as I advise, I think it will be
best that he come to my house at the time when the fatal and decisive
period approaches, that is, before he has attained his twenty-first year
complete. If you send him such as I desire, I humbly trust that God will
protect His own through whatever strong temptation his fate may subject
him to.' He then gave his host his address, which was a country seat near
a post town in the south of England, and bid him an affectionate
farewell.

The mysterious stranger departed, but his words remained impressed upon
the mind of the anxious parent. He lost his lady while his boy was still
in infancy. This calamity, I think, had been predicted by the Astrologer;
and thus his confidence, which, like most people of the period, he had
freely given to the science, was riveted and confirmed. The utmost care,
therefore, was taken to carry into effect the severe and almost ascetic
plan of education which the sage had enjoined. A tutor of the strictest
principles was employed to superintend the youth's education; he was
surrounded by domestics of the most established character, and closely
watched and looked after by the anxious father himself.

The years of infancy, childhood, and boyhood passed as the father could
have wished. A young Nazarene could not have been bred up with more
rigour. All that was evil was withheld from his observation: he