have often seen them exchange characters for a whole day
together. A suit of mourning has transformed my coquet into a
prude, and a new set of ribbands has given her younger sister
more than natural vivacity. My eldest son George was bred at
Oxford, as I intended him for one of the learned professions. My
second boy Moses, whom I designed for business, received a sort
of a miscellaneous education at home. But it is needless to
attempt describing the particular characters of young people that
had seen but very little of the world. In short, a family
likeness prevailed through all, and properly speaking, they had
but one character, that of being all equally generous, credulous,
simple, and inoffensive.



CHAPTER 2

Family misfortunes. The loss of fortune only serves to encrease
the pride of the worthy


The temporal concerns of our family were chiefly committed to my
wife's management, as to the spiritual I took them entirely under
my own direction. The profits of my living, which amounted to but
thirty-five pounds a year, I made over to the orphans and widows
of the clergy of our diocese; for having a sufficient fortune of
my own, I was careless of temporalities, and felt a secret
pleasure in doing my duty without reward. I also set a resolution
of keeping no curate, and of being acquainted with every man in
the parish, exhorting the married men to temperance and the