fostering a taste beyond what his means would permit him to gratify.
He had no present prospect but that of earning his bread by the sorest
labour. Even if his talent were an extraordinary one, it would take a
long time to cultivate it to a profitable point; and in the meantime,
how was he to be supported?

She told all this to her son; but when he begged her, as his only
recreation (for he never played with any boys except George Herman, as
good a boy as himself), to let him look over his father's portfolio of
sketches, could she deny the favour? or was she wrong? Nor could she
forbid some pen-and-ink sketches, in which she recognised familiar
objects, although she warned him against giving offence by
caricaturing; and while she described to him the wonders of this
glorious earth, with its embosomed treasures of mines and minerals,
and made him read in his Bible how God had created all and called it
good, she also showed him that man was the crowning work;--beloved of
God, notwithstanding his rebellion; made only a little lower than the
angels, crowned with dignity and honour; and so loved by the Saviour,
that he came to save those who otherwise would have been lost; and
still bearing much of the original impress in which he was created.
She explained to him how wrong it is to make game of the peculiarities
of any human being, ridicule his infirmities, or win a reputation by
exhibiting his defects; bidding him always, at the close of her
lecture, to read the sermon delivered on the mount, and to walk by its
rule, and he would not fail to do right.

There were times, however, when the mother's heart would almost
overcome this resolve. In her lonely hours fancy would portray her
son's future; and when does maternal hope discover aught but a
glorious one? She thought of what he might be, could he go abroad to