y former loving-kindness, keeping me still in thy
fatherly school, not as a bastard, but as a child. Just are thy
judgments upon me for my sins, which are more in number than the
sands of the sea, but which have no proportion to thy mercies.
Besides my innumerable sins, I confess before thee, that I am a
debtor to thee for the gracious talent of thy gifts and graces;
which I have neither put into a napkin nor placed, as I ought,
with exchangers, where it might have made best profit; but I have
misspent it in things for which I was least fit: so I may truly
say, my soul hath been a stranger in the course of my pilgrimage.
Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for my Savior's sake, and receive me
into thy bosom, or guide me into thy ways."

Matthew Hale.

Lord chief justice of England, born in Gloucestershire, in the year 1609,
and, by the care of a wise and religious father, had great attention paid
to his education.

In his youth, he was fond of company, and fell into many levities and
extravagances. But this propensity and conduct were corrected by a
circumstance that made a considerable impression on his mind during the
rest of his life. Being one day in company with other young men, one of
the party, through excess of wine, fell down, apparently dead, at their
feet. Young Hale was so affected on this occasion, that he immediately
retired to another room, and, shutting the door, fell on his knees, and
prayed earnestly to God that his friend might be restored to life, and
that he himself might be pardoned for having given countenance to so much
excess. At the same time, he made a solemn vow that he would never again
keep company in that manner, nor "drink a health" while he lived. His
friend recovered, and Hale religiously observed his vow. After this event,
there was an entire change in his disposition; he forsook all dissipated
company, and was careful to divide his time between the duties of religion
and the studies of his profession.

He became remarkable for his solid and grave deportment, his inflexible
regard to justice, and a religious tenderness of spirit, which appear to
have accompanied him through life. His retired meditations on religious
subjects manifest a pious and humble frame of mind, and a solemnity well
adapted to excite kindred emotions in the breast of the reader.

"True religion," says he, "teaches the soul a high veneration for Almighty
God, a sinc