men, yea, if possible, to forget it myself, as there might be
danger in having it spread abroad.

Tormented with many thoughts, and uneasy at the great risk I ran of
bringing guilt on my own soul by having made sponsorial promises which
I could not execute, I rested but indifferently that night. The next
day I pursued my journey home in the manner I had proposed, and was
glad to avoid the chance of being interrogated by Mr Waller as to what
had occurred. In a short time my good constitution and home restored
me to my former strength, and the memory of that strange incident grew
more faint as other things came to pass which made deeper impressions
on my heart and mind. Among these is not to be forgotten the death of
my father, which happened on the 14th of June in the following year,
_videlicet_ 1673; and the goodness of the lord bishop of Oxford in
giving me priests' orders on my college Demyship, whereby I was
enabled to present myself to this living, and hold it, having at that
time attained the canonical age. My courtship also and marriage, which
befell in the year 1674, had great effect in obliterating past
transactions. I was married on Thursday, the 24th day of June.

* * * * *

(Here several pages are omitted as irrelevant, containing family
incidents for some years.)

Howbeit things did not prosper with us so much as we did expect; for
the payers of tithes were a stiff-necked generation, as were the Jews
of old, and withheld their offerings from the priest at the very time
when Providence sent a plentiful supply of mouths to which the
offerings would have been of use. Charles was our only son, and was
now in his third year--the two girls, Henrietta and Sophia, were six
and seven--my eldest girl was nine years past, and I had named her, in
commemoration of my father's ancient friend, by the prenomen of
Waller. It hath been remarked by many wise men of old, and also by our
present good bishop, that industry and honesty are the two Herculeses
that will push the heaviest waggon through the mire, and more
particularly so, if the waggoner aids also by putting his shoulder to
the wheel. And easy was it to see, that the wheel of the domestic
plaustrum--wherein, after the manner of the ancient Parthians, I
included all my family, from the full beauty of my excellent wife to
the sun-lighted hair of my prattling little Charles (the which reminds
me of those beautiful lines which are cont