pursuits, Dr. Melmoth, it was universally allowed, was diligent and
successful in the arts of instruction. The young men of his charge
prospered beneath his eye, and regarded him with an affection that was
strengthened by the little foibles which occasionally excited their
ridicule. The president was assisted in the discharge of his duties by two
inferior officers, chosen from the alumni of the college, who, while they
imparted to others the knowledge they had already imbibed, pursued the
study of divinity under the direction of their principal. Under such
auspices the institution grew and flourished. Having at that time but two
rivals in the country (neither of them within a considerable distance), it
became the general resort of the youth of the Province in which it was
situated. For several years in succession, its students amounted to nearly
fifty,--a number which, relatively to the circumstances of the country,
was very considerable.

From the exterior of the collegians, an accurate observer might pretty
safely judge how long they had been inmates of those classic walls. The
brown cheeks and the rustic dress of some would inform him that they had
but recently left the plough to labor in a not less toilsome field; the
grave look, and the intermingling of garments of a more classic cut, would
distinguish those who had begun to acquire the polish of their new
residence; and the air of superiority, the paler cheek, the less robust
form, the spectacles of green, and the dress, in general of threadbare
black, would designate the highest class, who were understood to have
acquired nearly all the science their Alma Mater could bestow, and to be
on the point of assuming their stations in the world. There were, it is
true, exceptions to this general description. A few young men had found
their way hither from the distant seaports; and these were the models of
fashion to their rustic companions, over whom they asserted a superiority
in exterior accomplishments, which the fresh though unpolished intellect