of the sons of the forest denied them in their literary competitions. A
third class, differing widely from both the former, consisted of a few
young descendants of the aborigines, to whom an impracticable philanthropy
was endeavoring to impart the benefits of civilization.

If this institution did not offer all the advantages of elder and prouder
seminaries, its deficiencies were compensated to its students by the
inculcation of regular habits, and of a deep and awful sense of religion,
which seldom deserted them in their course through life. The mild and
gentle rule of Dr. Melmoth, like that of a father over his children, was
more destructive to vice than a sterner sway; and though youth is never
without its follies, they have seldom been more harmless than they were
here. The students, indeed, ignorant of their own bliss, sometimes wished
to hasten the time of their entrance on the business of life; but they
found, in after-years, that many of their happiest remembrances, many of
the scenes which they would with least reluctance live over again,
referred to the seat of their early studies. The exceptions to this remark
were chiefly those whose vices had drawn down, even from that paternal
government, a weighty retribution.

Dr. Melmoth, at the time when he is to be introduced to the reader, had
borne the matrimonial yoke (and in his case it was no light burden) nearly
twenty years. The blessing of children, however, had been denied him,--a
circumstance which he was accustomed to consider as one of the sorest
trials that checkered his pathway; for he was a man of a kind and
affectionate heart, that was continually seeking objects to rest itself
upon. He was inclined to believe, also, that a common offspring would have
exerted a meliorating influence on the temper of Mrs. Melmoth, the
character of whose domestic government often compelled him to call to mind
such portions of the wisdom of antiquity as relate to the proper endurance