was a mass of putrefying sores; but everybody thought the better of him
for his self-humiliation. One actual indiscretion, however, brought
home to him would have been visited by suspension or expulsion.



CHAPTER II--PREPARATION



It was necessary that an occupation should be found for me, and after
much deliberation it was settled that I should "go into the ministry."
I had joined the church, I had "engaged in prayer" publicly, and
although I had not set up for being extraordinarily pious, I was
thought to be as good as most of the young men who professed to have a
mission to regenerate mankind.

Accordingly, after some months of preparation, I was taken to a
Dissenting College not very far from where we lived. It was a large
old-fashioned house with a newer building annexed, and was surrounded
with a garden and with meadows. Each student had a separate room, and
all had their meals together in a common hall. Altogether there were
about forty of us. The establishment consisted of a President, an
elderly gentleman who had an American degree of doctor of divinity, and
who taught the various branches of theology. He was assisted by three
professors, who imparted to us as much Greek, Latin, and mathematics as
it was considered that we ought to know. Behold me, then, beginning a
course of training which was to prepare me to meet the doubts of the
nineteenth century; to be the guide of men; to advise them in their
perplexities; to suppress their tempestuous lusts; to lift them above