earth, and a chosen vessel among those elected for heaven. But if it be
otherwise"----The astrologer stopped and sighed deeply. "Sir," replied
the parent, still more alarmed than before, "your words are so kind,
your advice so serious, that I will pay the deepest attention to your
behests; but can you not aid me farther in this most important concern.
Believe me, I will not be ungrateful." "I require and deserve no
gratitude for doing a good action," said the stranger; "in especial for
contributing all that lies in my power, to save from an abhorred fate
the harmless infant to whom, under a singular conjunction of planets,
last night gave life. There is my address; you may write to me from time
to time concerning the progress of the boy in religious knowledge. If he
be bred up as I advise, I think it will be best that he come to my house
at the time when the fatal and decisive period approaches, that is,
before he has attained his twenty-first year complete. If you send him
such as I desire, I humbly trust that God will protect his own, through
whatever strong temptation his fate may subject him to." He then gave
his host his address, which was a country-seat near a post town in the
south of England, and bid him an affectionate farewell.

The mysterious stranger departed; but his words remained impressed upon
the mind of the anxious parent. He lost his lady while his boy was
still in infancy. This calamity, I think, had been predicted by the
astrologer; and thus his confidence, which, like most people of the
period, he had freely given to the science, was riveted and confirmed.
The utmost care, therefore, was taken to carry into effect the severe
and almost ascetic plan of education which the sage had enjoined. A tutor
of the strictest principles was employed to superintend the youth's
education; he was surrounded by domestics of the most established
character, and closely watched and looked after by the anxious father
himself. The years of infancy, childhood, and boyhood, passed as the