But it is time to return to the university. According to the manuscript, our friend’s studies appear to have proceeded in the even and ordinary course. He got progressively some addition to his stock of knowledge, and his tutor and fellow-collegians anticipated for him higher honours and distinctions than he afterwards attained. He affirms that he was much captivated with the simple but energetic manner of the celebrated Dr. Ogden’s preaching; he also occasionally frequented a chapel, where a Mr. Robertson preached, who was a very popular teacher among the dissenters, and who afterwards published various works which were well received: he, however, decidedly gave the preference to Dr. Ogden. He also makes repeated mention of Michael Lort, of bibliographical memory, old Cole of Milton, Masters, the historian of Corpus Christi College. Concerning these individuals, we could relate many particulars from our friend’s papers; but the subject has been so ably handled by Mr. Nichols, in his Anecdotes of Bowyer and his Press, that it seems less necessary. The great antiquarian Gough, the very accomplished Michael Tyson, Wale, the artist, &c. &c. came frequently within the sphere of his personal knowledge; but for the reason adduced in the preceding paragraph, we forbear any particular details concerning them. Old Masters, it seems, had a son of singular character, person, and demeanour. He affected, on all occasions, the greatest parsimony as to dress, and other expences; his suit of clothes was made of what the young men of that day called Ditto, as we believe they do still; he knew that his fortune would be considerable, but he preferred living in a garret, to one of the better rooms to which he was entitled; his spoons were of pewter; his tea apparatus the meanest that could be procured; but he was sharp and sensible, and alledged, in vindication of his whimsicality, that he wanted things for their use, and not for show. He would certainly have been distinguished in life by many great eccentricities, but he died prematurely of a consumption.
There was another contemporary of a singularity of character, which seems worthy of being recorded. He was educated at a public school, was a very good scholar, of agreeable manners, and of rigid accuracy as to his moral conduct; but he had the infirmity, amounting almost to disease, of the most invincible indolence. There was no rousing him to exertion of any kind; he could with difficulty be prevailed upon to stir from the precincts of the college; with still greater difficulty it was, that he could be induced to rise in the morning to chapel. He had been expostulated with, threatened by his superiors, and at length was unequivocally assured, that if he did not appear at chapel some morning in the following week, he should certainly be rusticated. Every morning but one had passed away, and he was still not visible. As our friend had an esteem for him, he undertook to call him himself, on the only morning remaining for his probation; he determined to see him dress, and conduct him to chapel. He accordingly went to his apartment in due time; woke, and so far roused him, that he sate up, and began to dress, but very reluctantly. To prevent, as was imagined, the possibility of his lying down again, he took the pitcher of water standing by his washing-stand, and emptied it into his bed. He then went to chapel, expecting him every moment. Alas! he came not.
The writer of these notes afterwards went up to his room, and found him fast asleep upon the wet bed-clothes. The result was, that he was sent from college. On subsequent enquiry after him, it was found that he had got into orders, but that the same unaccountable perverseness and indolence still accompanied him. He would keep the parishioners waiting in the church-yard, till they went away in disgust. It is feared that he was afterwards reduced to great inconveniences, and we believe that he is now dead.
About the same period, the college was electrified by an occurrence which fortunately does not very frequently happen. A young man, of good family and connections, had been admitted from one of the great public schools; but when the day fixed for his leaving his parental house for the university arrived, he suddenly disappeared, to the extreme consternation of his friends. After a diligent enquiry, it appeared that he had been seduced by a notorious beldam of high rank and fashion, with whom he was residing in some remote and obscure place. He was rescued from her temporary grasp, and brought to his destined abode; but his mind was vitiated, and he constantly longed for the gardens of his Armida. No great time elapsed before the sorceress pursued him, and once more caught him in her toils. It is supposed she was tired of him at last, for after a while he returned to his duty, and continued in it without further molestation and interruption; but he had incurred a habit of profuse expence, incompatible with his situation, with an aversion to any thing like study or confinement. He obtained, however, by his connections considerable preferment; but we understand that he died at no advanced period. His paramour, we are inclined to think, yet lives, the victim, it may be reasonably supposed, of the bitterest remorse. If her mind should ever wander to the person alluded to above, her sensations of self-reproach will not be greatly palliated.
Qui pectore magno
Spemque, metumque domas vitio sublimior omni.
CHAPTER IX.
It looks perhaps something like story-telling, but one incident leads to the remembrance of another, and this seems no improper place to relate from our manuscript, a fact, or rather a series of facts, which in hands accustomed to the manufacture of such articles, would make no uninteresting novel.
Among the Sexagenarian’s college acquaintance, was a young man of elegant person, manners, and accomplishments. He distinguished himself on every occasion, and left the university with the highest character. As he was our friend’s senior, they were not at that period very intimate, but they met, it seems, afterwards in life, and for many years continued upon terms of cordial friendship. He was invited to an honourable situation in a very illustrious family, and it is hardly necessary to add, after what has been premised, that he discharged the duties of it, to the entire satisfaction of his employers. He was thus in the progress to all that rank and fortune could bestow, when one of the daughters of the family became susceptible of the very strongest impressions in his favour. What was to be done? To remain in his situation was imprudent; to encourage the too apparent partiality was dishonourable, for marriage was impossible. The matter in a very short interval became so palpable, that it was proposed to him to travel for three years, with the assurance that if he married on his return, a very handsome provision should be made for him. He accordingly went abroad, and was absent for the time specified. Immediately on his return, he formed a connection, in which the heart had not so much to do, as the desire of being honourably settled, and of placing himself beyond the reach of danger and suspicion, from a quarter, to which he still looked with a kind of lingering regret, and from which also he reasonably expected the promised mark of favour and distinction.