t he is arrived at the Pillars of Hercules, beyond which there is
no safe way. That self-integrity which deems itself immaculate is
dangerous. Well hath it been said, 'Make no suppletories to thyself
when thou art disgraced or slighted, by pleasing thyself with the
supposition that thou didst deserve praise--neither do thou get
thyself a private theatre and flatterers, in whose vain noises and
fantastic praises thou mayst keep up thy good opinion of thyself.' Be
the act never so good, yet if it be performed rather with reference to
him who does than to that which is done, there is a taint in it for
which Eve is hardly answerable. It is but as a fair tower which the
builder has set on an unknown quicksand, and which the floods shall
damage or carry away. Oh! whosoever thou art that readest this, forget
not these words, but grave them as on marble, and in golden letters.
'While the altar sends up a holy flame, have a care thou dost not
suffer the birds to come and carry away the sacrifice--and let not
that which began well end in thine own praise or temporal
satisfaction, or a sin!'"

* * * * *

Until my twenty-seventh year I resided in the small cathedral town of
C----r in which I was born. My parents--especially my mother--were of
a serious cast. She had been educated as a Quaker, but following her
own notions as to religion, she in the latter part of her life became
attached to the tenets of that sect known by the name of Moravians,
and last of all to those which, when held in connection with the
ritual of the Church of England, are termed "Evangelical;" or, in
dissent from it, "Methodistical."

She was warm and fanciful in her devotional practice; for which the
belief as to the palpable and plenary influence of the Holy Spirit
upon the human mind, in which she was bred, may help to account. Of
these aspirations I, an ardent and sensitive boy, soon learned to
partake. My mind was never naturally _prone_ to vice; and my
imagination, though forward, was pure. I was brought up by my
excellent parents in the practice of virtue; and I loved it. With
an outward conduct thus guaranteeing inward persuasions--with
professions borne out by an unquestioned and pure, if not altogether
unostentatious piety of behaviour, what wonder that I soon became a
distinguished votary of the peculiar principles to which I had
attached myself. It is difficult for a young man to know himself
looked up to--be th