about its reality? Was it not there, before his eyes? Were not the very
regions of future existence already within the reach of one of his
senses? Why might they not yet be within the reach of all? Of course I
do not give you all the vague thoughts which passed through my mind; but
the permanence, power, and astonishing multitude of those bright worlds,
impressed themselves on me with a new force. I had known all those
matters before, but on this night I felt them. My next thoughts were of
the power, the wisdom, and the majesty of the mighty Being by whom all
this had been formed, moved, and sustained through thousands of years. I
need not follow the history of my conversion--for a conversion it was.
When I looked round me on the sleeping troops, I saw nothing but clods
of the valley--gallant beings, but as insensible to their high
inheritance as the chargers they rode. My heart moved me towards them;
and perhaps, in some instances, I succeeded in giving them my own ideas.
But Austria defies, at least, all human change. I was not a fanatic, and
I had no wish to strive with impossibilities. I sent in my resignation;
abandoned the 'pride, pomp, and circumstance' of the most tempting of
all human pursuits, and returned to England to be, what you see me now."

With this man I could have no reserves, and I freely asked his advice on
the plunge which I was about to make into that fathomless tide of good
and ill, the world. I mentioned the Church as the profession which my
mother had suggested, but for which I did not conceive either my temper
or my habits suitable.

"You are right, then, in abandoning the idea altogether," was the
answer; "and yet I know no profession more capable of fulfilling all the
objects of a vigorous mind. I am not now talking of mitres; they can
fall to but few. I speak of the prospects which it opens to all; the
power of exerting the largest influence for the highest purposes; the