ter too in fit
time and place. He is [like] the vault[29] in Gloster church, that
conveys whispers at a distance, for he takes the sound out of your mouth
at York, and makes it be heard as far as London. He is the young student's
joy and expectation, and the most accepted guest, to whom they lend a
willing hand to discharge him of his burden. His first greeting is
commonly, _Your friends are well_; [_and to prove it_][30] in a piece of
gold delivers their blessing. You would think him a churlish blunt fellow,
but they find in him many tokens of humanity. He is a great afflicter of
the high-ways, and beats them out of measure; which injury is sometimes
revenged by the purse-taker, and then the voyage miscarries. No man
domineers more in his inn, nor calls his host unreverently with more
presumption, and this arrogance proceeds out of the strength of his
horses. He forgets not his load where he takes his ease, for he is drunk
commonly before he goes to bed. He is like the prodigal child, still
packing away and still returning again. But let him pass.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] The chapel of the Virgin Mary, in the cathedral church of Gloucester,
was founded by Richard Stanley, abbot, in 1457, and finished by William
Farley, a monk of the monastery, in 1472. Sir Robert Atkyns gives the
following description of the vault here alluded to. "The _whispering
place_ is very remarkable; it is a long alley, from one side of the choir
to the other, built circular, that it might not darken the great east
window of the choir. When a person whispers at one end of the alley, his
voice is heard distinctly at the other end, though the passage be open in
the middle, having large spaces for doors and windows on the east side. It
may be imputed to the close cement of the wall, which makes it as one
entire stone, and so conveys the voice, as a long piece of timber does
convey the least stroak to the other end. Others assign it to the
repercussion of the voice from accidental angles." _Atkyns' Ancient and
Present State of Glostershire. Lond. 1712, folio, page 128._ See also
_Fuller's Worthies, in Gloucestershire, page 351_.

[30] _Then in a piece of gold_, &c. first edit.

XVI.

A YOUNG MAN;

He is now out of nature's protection, though not yet able to guide
himself; but left loose to the world and fortune, from which the weakness
of his childhood preserved him; and now his strength exposes him. He is,
indeed, just of age to be miserabl