asthmatic affection, which lately increased in violence, and, joined
with a disease of the liver, which physicians said he suffered from, now
seriously endangered his life. Since he was eighteen years old, Mr.
Jacob Prying never went inside a meeting-house or professed any
religion; a conclusion which he partly was drove to by the hypocrisy of
a certain minister in his neighborhood, who wanted to have Mr. Jacob
married to a daughter of his, who, two days before the marriage, he
found out, accidentally, had been seduced by an ex-senator in Boston.
This piece of deception on the part of the religious teacher, and the
treachery of the _maid_ herself, so disgusted Jacob Prying, that he
registered a vow in heaven that he never again would allow himself to
become the victim of hypocrisy or of female dissimulation. The parsons,
all round, because he was proof against their transparent baits, to fill
their meeting-houses, cried him down as an infidel, whose heart was
hardened, and who despised the Bible. Uncle Jacob never attempted to
dispel the prejudices raised against him by the malice of despised
dominies; but his heart refuted their lies, for it was open to every
noble and humane influence, and, above all, undefiled from the
corruption of the world. Hence, in his hour of sickness, in his hour of
trial and need, the Almighty rewarded him for his natural good parts,
and sent His angel to conduct him, by the simple means herein recorded,
to the bosom of that holy religion, outside which there is nothing but
bitterness and woe, and without which "it is impossible to please God."
Knowing the nature of the enemies he had to contend with, poor Mr. Jacob
Prying was silent on the subject of his religious doubts till the advent
of Paul to the farm. Like the ancient noble Roman, who, under the garb
of folly, concealed his profound heroic wisdom, uncle Jacob was content
to be called an infidel and unbeliever, so that he might preserve his
heart undefiled, and ready for that precious pearl "of great price"
which his heart sighed for, and which he was about now to receive;