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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to
+Oxford, by Edward Berens
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford
+       In Ten Letters, From an Uncle to His Nephew
+
+Author: Edward Berens
+
+Release Date: March 29, 2007 [EBook #20932]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Irma Spehar, Louise Pryor and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+{Transcriber's note:
+
+Greek has been transliterated and is surrounded with ++: +makrothymei+}
+
+
+
+
+  LETTERS,
+  &c.
+
+
+
+
+  ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN
+
+  UPON
+  FIRST GOING TO OXFORD,
+
+  IN
+  TEN LETTERS,
+
+  FROM AN UNCLE TO HIS NEPHEW.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  BY THE
+  REV. EDWARD BERENS, M.A.
+  LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  LONDON:
+  PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,
+  ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD,
+  AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  1832.
+
+
+
+
+  LONDON:
+  GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
+  St. John's Square.
+
+
+
+
+I have long thought that a book was wanted, of the nature of that which
+I have here attempted. How far I have succeeded in the attempt, the
+public will determine.
+
+I have had,--have at present,--and (if I live,) expect to have
+hereafter,--several nephews at Oxford; all having to make their own way
+in the world, and all, consequently, having abundant reason for being
+economical, both of their time and of their money, during their
+residence at the University. These Letters were not addressed to any one
+of them in particular, but are intended, like some official documents,
+"for all whom they may concern." Perhaps I had more especially in view,
+those of them who are destined for my own profession.
+
+  E. B.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  LETTER.                                              PAGE.
+
+     I. Sense of Religion                                 1
+
+    II. Choice of Friends                                13
+
+   III. Conversation                                     27
+
+    IV. Against yielding to the Influence of Numbers     45
+
+     V. Improvement of Time                              55
+
+    VI. Punctuality                                      72
+
+   VII. Amusements                                       85
+
+  VIII. Expenses, and running into Debt                  99
+
+    IX. Temperance                                      114
+
+     X. English Reading                                 137
+
+
+
+
+LETTER I.
+
+SENSE OF RELIGION.
+
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+It gives me sincere pleasure to hear that you have actually become a
+member of the University of Oxford. This satisfaction, perhaps, may in
+some degree be attributed to the pleasing recollection of my own Oxford
+life, but certainly it arises principally from anticipation of the
+substantial benefits which you, I trust, will derive from your connexion
+with that seat of learning. At the same time, I will own that my
+satisfaction is not entirely unmixed with something like apprehension.
+An University education has many and great advantages, but it also is
+attended with many temptations;--temptations to which too many young men
+have yielded, sometimes to the great injury of their character, and the
+utter ruin of all their future prospects.
+
+In fact, you are now entering upon the most important period--the
+_turning point_--of your whole life. You have become, in a great
+measure, your own master. For though you will be under a certain degree
+of discipline and _surveillance_, yet in a multiplicity of cases you
+will have to act for yourself--to take your own line. You will have to
+contend against the allurements of pleasure and dissipation, and you
+have just reached the age when the natural passions and appetites become
+most impatient of restraint. At the same time, you will be exposed to
+the influence both of the example and of the solicitations of lively
+young men, who will try to carry you along with them in their career of
+thoughtlessness and folly, and who will think it strange, and _show_ you
+that they think it strange, if you run not with them to the same excess
+of riot. Against all these moral trials and temptations, your best
+safeguard will be found in a strong sense of religion, kept habitually
+present to your mind. You must endeavour, according to the language of
+Scripture--(and in writing to you I shall always gladly make use of the
+very words of Scripture, when they suit my purpose, as having a force
+and an authority which no other words can possess)--you must endeavour
+to _set the Lord always before you_. Never for a moment forget that you
+are continually in the presence of that awful Being, who can, and who
+will, call you to a strict account for all that you do amiss. Nothing
+can excuse your forgetting Him.
+
+If you at all believe in a Supreme Being, the Creator and Governor of
+the world; if you believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them
+that diligently seek him, and at the same time an avenger to execute
+wrath upon every soul that doeth evil, the least particle of common
+sense or common feeling will tell you, that nothing should be put in
+competition with his will. When his will is clear, it _must_ be obeyed
+without hesitation. I am sure that you will assent to this. If religion
+is any thing, it is _every thing_. It is, indeed, the one thing needful,
+in comparison with which every thing else sinks into insignificance,
+into nothingness.
+
+Endeavour, then, to keep up in your mind and heart this habitual sense
+of religion by every means in your power. It will require from you
+considerable care and attention. The lively spirits natural to your time
+of life, and the thoughtless levity of some of the young men into whose
+society you will be thrown, will have a tendency to make you think less
+of religion, if not to induce you entirely to forget it. Be ever on your
+guard against thus swerving from your allegiance to your Creator.
+
+Nothing will contribute more to preserve you from this danger than
+regularity and earnestness in your private devotions. When you rise in
+the morning, seek from God spiritual strength to enable you to resist
+and overcome the temptations to which you may be exposed during the day.
+Every night implore his forgiveness for your many failings and
+transgressions, and his protection against the dangers which surround
+you. Suffer nothing to induce you to neglect private prayer.
+
+You will of course be required every day to attend chapel. Consider
+such attendance not as an irksome duty, not as a mere matter of routine
+and college discipline, but try to regard it as a privilege, and to take
+a real interest and pleasure in it. Acquire the habit of joining
+fervently in the prayers, and of constantly deriving from the lessons
+and other portions of Scripture, the doctrinal and practical instruction
+which they were intended to convey. Many college chapels are furnished
+with Greek Testaments and Septuagints. You will judge from experience,
+whether following the lessons in the Greek assists in fixing your
+attention, or whether it diverts it from the matter to the language. My
+own opinion is in favour of the practice.
+
+Make a point of giving to Sunday as much of a religious character as
+you can. I am not recommending a Jewish strictness. Let Sunday be a day
+of cheerfulness; but let your reading and your thoughts, as far as may
+be, partake of the sacred character of the day.
+
+The study of the Scriptures constitutes an important part of your
+preparation for your degree. This study will furnish an appropriate
+employment for a considerable portion of the Sunday. Always attend the
+University Sermons. I recommend this not merely as a branch of
+academical discipline, but as a means of religious and intellectual
+improvement. The sermon will generally, I believe, be worth attending
+to. The select preachers are chosen, for the most part, from the ablest
+men in the University; men, several of whom are likely hereafter to fill
+the highest stations in the Church. You will seldom be driven to have
+recourse to the advice of the pious Nicole in his Essay, "_des moyens de
+profiter de mauvais sermons_." The various modes in which different
+preachers enforce or illustrate the same great truths, and the
+diversities of their style and manner, may afford you matter--not of
+ill-natured criticism--but of useful reflection. Some colleges require
+their under-graduates to give every week in writing a summary of the
+sermon which they have heard at St. Mary's. If you adopt this practice,
+you will find it contribute greatly to fix your attention, and to give
+you a habit of arranging and expressing your ideas with facility and
+readiness. Of course, some preachers deserve this steadiness of
+attention much more than others.
+
+It is, I trust, unnecessary to remind you of the duty of receiving the
+Lord's Supper, whenever it is administered in your college chapel. In
+some colleges, nearly all the under-graduates partake of this ordinance;
+in others, I believe, almost all neglect it: at least this was the case
+formerly. In such and similar cases, you must be guided, not by common
+practice, not by the example of numbers, but by what you know to be your
+duty. If you feel any doubt or difficulty, frankly mention it to your
+tutor. There are, I am persuaded, few tutors now in Oxford, who would
+not be able and willing to assist you with their advice.
+
+This attention to your religious duties need not be attended by any
+preciseness or austerity of manner. On the contrary, I should wish you
+to be at all times cheerful and good humoured, ready to take part in any
+innocent gaiety. My object is to impress upon you the absolute necessity
+of always putting religion in the _first place_. If you really believe
+what you profess to believe, do not hesitate as to shewing it in your
+conduct. Never be so weak as to be ashamed of doing what you know to be
+your duty. Never be guilty of such unmanly cowardice as to be ashamed
+of avowing your allegiance to your Creator and your Redeemer.
+
+  I remain,
+  My dear Nephew,
+  Your affectionate Uncle.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II.
+
+CHOICE OF FRIENDS, AND BEHAVIOUR IN SOCIETY.
+
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+Among the many advantages of an University, few rank higher, both in
+general estimation and in reality, than the opportunity which it affords
+of forming valuable and lasting friendships. Indeed this advantage can
+hardly be rated too highly. I look back to the intimacies which I
+contracted at college, as among the greatest blessings of a life, which
+has been eminently blessed in various ways. I still hold intercourse
+with many of my Oxford friends, whose characters and attainments do
+honour to the place where their education and their minds were matured.
+And even the recollection of most of those, who have been removed from
+this lower world, is attended with a soothing melancholy, which partakes
+more of pleasure and thankfulness for having enjoyed their society, than
+of pain. _The memory of the just is blessed[14:1]._
+
+I hope, my dear nephew, that you will improve this advantage to the
+utmost. In your intimacies, however, endeavour to be guided rather by
+judgment than by mere fancy. Sameness of pursuits, similarity of
+dispositions and inclinations generally contribute much to throw men
+together; but be careful not to attach yourself to any man as a
+_friend_, unless he is a man of moral worth, and of real religious
+principle. Intimacy with a man who is unrestrained by religion, _must_
+be attended with great danger. Your own natural appetites will
+continually solicit you to forbidden indulgences, and will not be kept
+in due subjection without difficulty. If their solicitations are
+seconded by the example and by the conversations of an intimate
+associate, your peril will be extreme. Intimacy with a man of bad
+principles and immoral character, may utterly blast all your prospects
+of happiness both in this world and the next.
+
+You will of course have the greater power of _selection_, if your
+general acquaintance is pretty extensive. I acknowledge, that my opinion
+is rather in favour of your forming an extensive acquaintance, provided
+that you never suffer it to encroach upon your time, or to lead you into
+any compromise of religious principle. Going to the University
+constitutes a sort of entrance into the world, an introduction to manly
+life; but this advantage is lost if you seclude yourself altogether from
+society. In order, however, to acquire or to retain such an
+acquaintance, your manners and general demeanour must be acceptable or
+popular.
+
+One of the first requisites, in order to be thus acceptable, is the
+neglect, the forgetfulness of _self_--a readiness to put _self_ in the
+back-ground. Any obtrusion of self, any appearance of self-love,
+self-interest, self-conceit, or self-applause, tends to expose a man to
+dislike, perhaps to contempt.
+
+One way in which this disregard, this abandonment of self, must show
+itself, is real unaffected humility. Most of the external forms and
+modes of modern politeness, its bows and obeisances, its professions of
+respect and service, its adulations, are nothing but an affectation of
+such humility, and bear witness to its value when it exists in reality.
+When it does so exist, and still is free from any servility of manner,
+any unworthy compliances, nothing contributes more to make a man
+acceptable and popular in society. It inflicts no unnecessary wounds on
+any one's pride or self-love. And, you will observe, that it is the
+temper and behaviour, inculcated by the general spirit and by the
+particular precepts of religion, which bids us _in honour to prefer one
+another_; and says, _in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better
+than himself_.
+
+Another requisite is, a willingness to please and to be pleased. Some
+men seem to think it beneath them, and a mark of littleness of mind, to
+wish or to try to please any body, and wrap themselves up in a cold
+superciliousness. Others seem determined never to be pleased with any
+thing or any person, but are always finding fault. They have no eye
+for, no perception of, merits or beauties, either external or internal,
+but are keen and quick-sighted in detecting blemishes, and eloquent in
+exaggerating them[20:1]. If any person's good qualities, or any work of
+art or of genius is commended, they are sure to throw in some
+observations calculated to depreciate and disparage them. And with
+respect even to the works of Nature, and the dispensations of
+Providence, they are more ready to see and to point out evils, than to
+acknowledge advantages. This temper--this habit of disparagement--is
+certainly very unamiable; and justly offensive, not only to those who
+are run down by it as its immediate objects, but to all who witness it.
+A man who consults his own comfort, or the comfort of those with whom he
+associates, should be disposed to make the best of every thing. I would
+by no means wish him in the slightest degree to compromise truth, or to
+make the remotest approach to flattery; but I would have him see every
+thing in the most favourable point of view, and disposed to pursue and
+to dwell upon what is good rather than upon what is bad. Too much of
+that which is bad is sure to be forced upon our attention, without our
+taking any pains to look out for it.
+
+Be always on your guard against hurting the feelings, or even shocking
+the prejudices, of those with whom you associate. A little observation,
+and some attention to your own feelings in similar circumstances, will
+soon teach you what is likely to be annoying to others. Make every
+allowance for their self-love, and for attachment to their own opinions.
+
+Never give unnecessary pain or mortification. It is _unnecessary_, when
+it can be avoided without compromising the consistency of your own
+character, or hazarding the interests of religion and of truth.
+
+In short, my dear nephew, if you will study St. Paul's account of the
+nature and properties of charity, and regulate your temper and your
+behaviour accordingly, you will want little in order to be a perfect
+gentleman, in the highest sense of the word. I will not enter upon this
+account in detail, but must refer you to Fenelon's excellent book on
+this subject, if it should come in your way, or even to my own
+Sermon[22:1]. Give me your attention, however, for a minute or two, to a
+few slight remarks upon charity--merely as it bears upon our conduct in
+society.
+
+_Charity suffereth long_--+makrothymei+--it bears patiently with other
+men's defects of temper, discourteousness of behaviour, and awkwardness
+of manner; and is _kind_, gentle, and obliging--+chresteuetai+.
+
+Charity envieth not--+ou zeloi+. It is free from those little jealousies,
+and rivalries, and emulations, which, where they are admitted, sometimes
+give sourness to the temper, and bitterness to the behaviour.
+
+Charity _vaunteth not itself_--+ou perpereuetai+; it is not rash or over
+hasty; it is not overbearing, positive, and peremptory, in language or
+manner; _is not puffed up_--+ou physioutai+; is not inflated with an
+opinion of its own worth or consequence; and, that being the case, it
+doth not behave itself unseemly--+ouk aschemonei+; it does not treat
+other men with disdain and superciliousness.
+
+Charity _seeketh not her own_--+ou zetei ta heautes+--that is, she is not
+_selfish_. Charity neglects not altogether her own concerns, or her own
+interests, but does not attend to them exclusively; does not _so_ attend
+to them, as to be unmindful of, or inattentive to, the interests and
+welfare of others.
+
+Charity is not easily provoked--+ou paroxynetai+. Nothing more
+disturbs the peace and comfort of society than the being easily
+provoked. When a man is touchy and waspish, he is always looking out
+for, and catching at, occasions of offence.
+
+Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; it does
+not take pleasure in hearing of misdoings and evil conduct, but
+delights in accounts of praiseworthy actions, and in the spread of sound
+religious principles.
+
+Charity _beareth all things, believeth all thing, hopeth all things,
+endureth all things_; +panta stegei, panta pisteuei, panta elpizei, panta
+hypomenei+.
+
+I will not, my dear nephew, lengthen a long letter, by endeavouring to
+point out the precise meaning of these expressions. You may understand
+from them, that charity is patient of ill-usage; that instead of being
+suspicious and disposed to cavil and carp at every thing, it is open and
+ingenuous, ready to give men credit for speaking the truth, when there
+is no good reason to think otherwise; and that it is disposed to hope
+the best, to think as favourably as it can of those with whom it comes
+in contact; and if it cannot actually think well of them at present, to
+_hope_ for their amendment and reformation.
+
+I think you will agree with me, that a man influenced by this spirit
+would be an acceptable man in society, and that the best practical
+Christian would be the best gentleman[26:1].
+
+  I remain,
+  Your affectionate Uncle.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[14:1] Prov. x. 7.
+
+[20:1] See Numbers 72, 74, and 98, of the Rambler.
+
+[22:1] See Village Sermons.
+
+[26:1] See Jones's Letters from a Tutor to his Pupils.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III.
+
+CONVERSATION.
+
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+I take it for granted, that upon first going from school to Oxford, and
+entering into society different, in many respects, from any that you
+have hitherto been accustomed to, you feel some of that shyness which
+belongs to the character of most Englishmen. I should be sorry if you
+did not. You probably feel diffident, too, of your ability to bear your
+part in general conversation, and an apprehension of being, on that
+account, set down as a stupid fellow. But don't be uneasy. More young
+men, I am persuaded, hurt themselves by talking too much, than by
+talking too little. When a fresh-man, at first starting, is quite at his
+ease, and talks readily upon any subject that happens to be uppermost,
+some of his companions may be amused at his coolness, but most of them
+will be disgusted. If, by your look and manner, you show that you are
+alive to what is said by others, and now and then throw in a remark, not
+destitute of meaning, you will be more generally popular than one of
+those random talkers. Men of a certain standing, qualified by their
+liveliness or by their information to bear a leading part in
+conversation, do not like to see an undue share of it engrossed by
+others, especially by a mere youngster. They greatly prefer a good
+listener to a ready talker.
+
+Young practitioners in Doctors' Commons have, I believe, to pass through
+their year of silence, before they are allowed to speak. During the
+period of silence, they quietly observe, and become acquainted with, the
+usages and practice of the court. Something similar to this period of
+quiet observation, might not be inexpedient for a noviciate in society.
+At all events, never talk for talking's sake; never speak unless you
+have something to say worth attending to.
+
+You will, I am sure, my dear nephew, take it in good part, if I point
+out a few of the conversational faults, of which young men are apt to be
+guilty. It is natural that we should talk most of that in which we are
+most interested. Now, of all things in the world, a young man feels most
+interested in _himself_. But if, in consequence of such feeling, he
+ventures to talk much of himself, of his own habits, his own pursuits,
+his own feelings, his own achievements, he will very soon be set down as
+a bore and a conceited coxcomb. A young man naturally feels a strong
+interest, an interest increased by separation, in his own immediate
+family. This feeling, with some young men, is so deep, that they shun
+the mention of any thing closely connected with their _home_ as a sort
+of profanation, a desecration of things sacred. With others, this
+feeling takes the opposite direction, and leads them--_celebrare
+domestica facta_--to introduce the concerns of their own nearest
+relations into the conversation of a mixed party. Take care that you
+never are guilty of such a violation of good taste and correct judgment.
+Interesting as your home and its inmates are to _you_, nothing can well
+be less interesting to those, who are unacquainted with them. It will be
+a stretch of courtesy and good-nature, if they tolerate the mention of
+them without some expression either of ridicule or of distaste. If you
+speak of your home-concerns at all, let it be only to one or two
+intimate friends, who, from the regard which they feel for _you_, may be
+supposed to take an interest in all belonging to you.
+
+Be on your guard against getting into the habit of telling long stories:
+they generally are tiresome. Many circumstances, in addition to the
+feeling that you have them to tell, may give them a consequence in your
+eyes, which they do not in reality possess. Lively anecdotes, or short
+narratives, told with spirit, are among the most amusing ingredients in
+conversation; but even with them, if you often meet the same company,
+there is considerable danger of falling into repetition.
+
+Never be guilty of falling into the too common practice of indulging in
+scandal, the practice of talking of men disparagingly, of running down
+their character behind their backs. I by no means wish you to flatter
+any man, whether present or absent, or to speak favourably of character
+or of conduct which does not deserve it. But beware of _detraction_.
+Nothing is more unamiable in any man, especially in a _young_ man; and,
+what is of infinitely more consequence, nothing is more opposite to the
+spirit and the precepts of religion, which repeatedly enjoins us to
+_speak evil of no man_. Bear in mind the advice of one of the most
+sagacious and penetrating observers of human nature:--_Whether it be to
+a friend or foe, talk not of other men's lives; and if thou canst,
+without offence, reveal them not[34:1]._ _If thou canst without
+offence_;--circumstances may require that the truth should be
+revealed,--that the real truth should be spoken and made known, even
+though it should be injurious,--though it should be absolutely fatal to
+another man's character. But do not take pleasure in telling any thing
+to another's prejudice; do not make the tearing of a character in pieces
+a matter of amusement. By such conduct you would not only be guilty of a
+gross violation of Christian charity, but will probably bring yourself
+into many scrapes in a worldly point of view. In a mixed company, there
+may chance to be some friend or connexion of him, whom you are running
+down; or, at all events, what you say will be repeated,--_a bird of the
+air will carry the matter_,--till it comes to the ears of the injured
+person. And what will be the consequence? A feeling of aversion and
+dislike, a spirit of hostility to you, will, not unnaturally, be
+engendered, both in him and in such of his friends and connections as
+are acquainted with the circumstance.
+
+One of the most unwarrantable kinds or forms of detraction, is the
+attributing of any man's conduct to corrupt or unworthy motives. A man's
+real motives are known only to God and to himself; indeed, very often
+to God _alone_, as from the deceitfulness and intricacy of the human
+heart, a man himself is sometimes ignorant as to what his real motives
+actually are. Certainly it is rash and presumptuous for any other man to
+pretend to decide upon them, and most uncharitable and unjust to
+pronounce them to be corrupt, when they are capable of a favourable
+interpretation. Express your disapprobation of unworthy actions as
+strongly as you please; but beware of rash and uncharitable censure, and
+especially beware of the presumption of imputing to any corrupt and evil
+motives.
+
+As I have cautioned you against violating Christian charity in
+conversation, so I must warn you against infringing on Christian
+purity. You have arrived at a period of life, when your utmost care and
+vigilance will be requisite, to keep your natural passions and appetites
+within proper bounds. Indeed, all your care will be ineffectual unless
+assisted by Divine grace. Do not take part in conversation which is
+calculated to add to their importunity or to their strength. Thoughtless
+young men, under the influence of these feelings, sometimes indulge in
+_foolish talking and jesting_[37:1], of most pernicious tendency, and
+most inconsistent with the Christian character. Avoid and discourage
+conversation of this nature, so far as you possibly can. Do not add
+fuel to a flame which already burns but too fiercely. _Fools make a mock
+at sin_[38:1]; and none but _fools_ should be capable of making a joke
+of temptations and vices, which in themselves are awfully serious, which
+lead on to eternal ruin.
+
+I hope you will never be so unfortunate, as to fall much into the
+company of men, who make a jest of religion, or of any thing connected
+with religion. Those who are bent upon following the guidance of their
+own appetites, and their own wills, naturally dislike that which would
+check and restrain them. They are consequently apt to become
+_scoffers_, and to attempt to turn religion and its sanctions into
+ridicule. Avoid the society and conversation of such men, as you would
+avoid the plague. If unhappily thrown among them, discountenance them to
+the utmost.
+
+Do not indulge yourself in a habit of raillery or banter. Raillery is a
+difficult thing to manage well, and very apt both to give pain to him
+who is the object of it, and to reflect discredit on him who attempts
+it. Sometimes you see one or two young men, of more liveliness than
+sense, picking out some quiet person in company as a _butt_, at which
+they may point their wit, and carrying on an attack of banter and
+ridicule. This is, probably, not only annoying to him, but tiresome and
+painful to all the right feeling men who chance to be present.
+
+I am glad to join in, or to witness, a honest hearty laugh, when any
+thing really calls for it. Beware, however, of the practice of laughing
+when there is nothing to laugh at. Some people fall into a way of giving
+the accompaniment of a laugh to almost every thing that they utter,
+especially if they have any direct intention to be jocular. This habit
+is disagreeable to most of those who witness it. It proceeds, I believe,
+generally from a sort of shyness and awkwardness contracted in early
+youth, and is, as I know from experience, difficult to get rid of. It
+certainly is inconsistent with the manners and habits of good society.
+Be always the last to laugh at your own jokes, or your own _good_
+stories. If they are really worth laughing at, the company will find it
+out, and by premature or excessive laughter you will mar their effect.
+
+As you get on in society, you will probably often fall into discussion
+and argument. When this is the case, take care not to be too positive or
+peremptory in your manner. Be solicitous to allow their full weight to
+the arguments of your antagonist. Do not suffer the impression of the
+force and correctness of your own reasoning, to render you blind to what
+is urged against you. Above all, keep your temper. If you lose your
+temper, victory will be deprived of its credit, and defeat will be more
+disgraceful. At the same time you will run a double chance of being
+defeated, without having the wit to see, or the manliness to own it.
+Believe me, my dear nephew, (to adopt the very words of one of the most
+sagacious and distinguished of modern statesmen) "that the arms with
+which the ill dispositions of the world are to be combated, and the
+qualities by which it is to be reconciled to us, and we reconciled to
+it, are moderation, gentleness, a little indulgence to others, and a
+great deal of distrust of ourselves; which are not qualities of a mean
+spirit, as some may possibly think them, but virtues of a great and
+noble kind, and such as dignify our nature as much as they contribute to
+our repose and fortune; for nothing can be so unworthy of a
+well-composed soul, as to pass away life in bickerings and litigations,
+in snarling and scuffling with every one about us. Again and again, my
+dear,--we must be at peace with our species; if not for their sakes, yet
+very much for our own[43:1]."
+
+But my letter grows long, and I must hasten to conclude it. Read
+repeatedly Cowper's lively poem on conversation, which seems to me to
+have much of the spirit and accurate moral taste of Horace, with the
+elevation derived from Christianity. Read, too, if you can lay your hand
+on it, Bishop Horne's paper on conversation, in the Olla Podrida. In
+these two essays you will find many of the sentiments which I have
+expressed, only given in a much more engaging manner. In the 78th and
+83d Numbers of the Idler, many common faults in conversation are exposed
+with a degree of humour, in which our great moralist did not very
+frequently indulge.
+
+  I remain,
+  My dear Nephew,
+  Your affectionate Uncle.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[34:1] Ecclus. xix. 8.
+
+[37:1] Ephes. v. 4. and Coloss. iii. 8.
+
+[38:1] Prov. xiv. 9.
+
+[43:1] Prior's Life of Burke, p. 215. Second edition.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV.
+
+AGAINST YIELDING TO THE INFLUENCE OF NUMBERS.
+
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+When I advised you to fall in, so far as you reasonably can, with the
+wishes and inclinations of those with whom you associate, you
+understood, I trust, that compliance should never go so far, as to
+involve the slightest sacrifice of truth or of principle. When carried
+to this culpable extent, it becomes an instance of weak and unmanly
+cowardice.
+
+One of the greatest dangers to which young men are exposed upon their
+first entrance into the world, is that which arises from their readiness
+to be swayed by the example or by the persuasion of their companions.
+The example, and still more the persuasion, of a single individual, is
+sometimes not without difficulty resisted, and the difficulty of
+resistance is greatly increased by the influence of numbers. A young man
+dreads the imputation of singularity. He cannot bear to stand out
+against the example, perhaps the solicitations, of those among whom he
+lives. He suffers himself, therefore, to be carried along by the stream,
+and led into conduct, of which, in his conscience, he utterly
+disapproves.
+
+Never, my dear nephew, do you be guilty of such weakness. Avoid
+singularity, whenever it can be avoided with innocence: an affectation
+of singularity for singularity's sake, generally proceeds from conceit
+or self-sufficiency. But where the path of duty is clear, let no example
+or persuasion induce you to swerve from it. Keep ever impressed upon
+your mind the admonition of Scripture, _Thou shalt not follow a
+multitude to do evil_.
+
+Never suffer yourself to be laughed out of what is right. Never be
+ashamed of adhering to what you know to be your duty. In matters of duty
+keep in mind the words of Scripture, _Fear ye not the reproach of men,
+neither be afraid of their revilings_. Never expose yourself to the
+censure justly cast upon those who value the praise or the approbation
+of men,--of giddy, thoughtless, sensual men, more than the praise of
+God. Remember, my dear nephew, the solemn warning of our Lord: _If any
+man shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
+generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in his
+glory with his holy angels_.
+
+In your steady adherence to the dictates of conscience, you will always
+find some who will respect you for it; or, even if you should stand
+alone, like Abdiel, "among the faithless, the only faithful," you will
+be supported by the testimony of your own heart, and by an humble
+confidence in the approbation of the Almighty. One or two instances may,
+probably, make my meaning more clear.
+
+Perhaps a few joyous spirits have devised some scheme of irregular,
+sensual gratification,--of Bacchanalian revelry;--or, perhaps, two or
+three dunces, whose intellects and moral feelings are of such a stamp,
+as to render them rather impracticable subjects for academical
+discipline, have contrived some plan of impotent resistance to the
+college authorities, or some plot of petty and vexatious annoyance, in
+order to give vent to their mortification, when such silly resistance
+has been proved to be ineffectual. Wishing for the screen or protection
+of numbers, they will try to persuade their companions, that they will
+be wanting in manly spirit, or in social feeling, if they refuse to join
+them. And is there, after all, any thing so very _spirited_, any thing
+of high-minded and noble daring in behaviour, which seeks to screen
+itself by concealment and subterfuge, and which, if detected, braves,
+not any personal danger or suffering, but merely the terrors of an
+imposition? If the offence is so aggravated as to entail the heavier
+penalty, rustication, or expulsion, such punishment inflicts, indeed,
+severe grief upon the parents and friends of the offender; but he
+himself, with the short-sightedness of folly, perhaps almost enjoys the
+idleness and the freedom from academical restraint, to which rustication
+consigns him. A young Oxonian is apt to feel very indignant if not
+treated by deans and tutors, as a man and as a gentleman; but has he any
+right to expect to be so treated, if he condescends to adopt the
+practices of a mischievous or a truant school boy?
+
+I am no friend to the unnecessary imposition of oaths; but, I own, I do
+not see how any thing like deliberate and systematic opposition to
+academical authority, can be reconciled with the oath of academical
+obedience taken by every freshman. I know well that the usual
+construction of that oath,--(I doubt not the legitimate
+construction)--is, that the person who takes it will obey the statutes,
+or submit to the penalty imposed upon the infraction of them. I am
+aware, too, that the violation of the strict letter of many of the
+statutes is acquiesced in, and almost sanctioned, by those in authority;
+but surely a _deliberate_ and _contumacious_ contravention of the
+statutes, accompanied by a natural endeavour to evade punishment, is
+hardly consistent with the spirit of the oath. Certainly it is
+inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity, which everywhere
+inculcates a dutiful submission to the constituted authorities; a
+compliance, in all things lawful, with the regulations of the place in
+which we are, and of the society which has received us among its
+members. No man is compelled to go to the University; but if he does go
+thither, he should make up his mind to comply with its rules, during the
+short period of his residence.
+
+Perhaps, my dear nephew, you may think that I have all this time been
+combating, or, rather, seeking to _lay_, a phantom of my own raising;
+that I have been making mole-hills into mountains; or, like Don Quixote,
+turning wind-mills into giants: but, in my long Oxford life, I have
+heard of so many instances of the silly behaviour of which I have been
+speaking, that I wish to put you on your guard against it. True
+manliness consists in adhering to what you think to be right. In
+keeping steadily to the path of duty, notwithstanding the solicitations,
+or the taunts, or the ridicule of your associates, there is more proper
+spirit and moral courage, than in braving the rebuke or the impositions
+of a dean or a proctor.
+
+  I remain,
+  My dear Nephew,
+  Your affectionate Uncle.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V.
+
+IMPROVEMENT OF TIME.
+
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+I trust that you are now hard at work. I can figure you with your
+Herodotus before you, your Scapula on one side, and your maps on the
+other, _setting-to_ in good earnest. You have, I am sure, fully
+determined to make the most of your time. The time which you must
+necessarily pass in Oxford, in order to take your bachelor's degree, is
+but little after all. Your whole actual residence, during the three
+years, will probably not much exceed a year and a half. Certainly, of
+this _modicum_ of time you cannot afford to waste any portion. Make a
+point of devoting it to real study, to real strenuous exertion. You owe
+this to yourself--to your own credit and character; you owe it to your
+parents, who have probably put themselves to some pecuniary
+inconvenience, in order to give you the advantage of an Oxford
+education; you owe it to God, to whom you are responsible for the
+employment of your time, as well as for the proper use of your other
+talents. Fix in your mind and memory the lesson taught you by the
+sun-dial in the Quadrangle at All Souls--"_Pereunt et imputantur_;" or
+that of another similar monitor--"_Ab hoc momento pendet aeternitas_."
+Take time for exercise; take time for relaxation; but make steady
+reading your object and your business. Do not be so weak, or so unmanly,
+or so vain, as to be ashamed of being known to read. You went to Oxford
+on purpose to study; why should you be ashamed of keeping that purpose
+in view?
+
+In the choice of your studies, be guided implicitly by the advice of
+your tutor. Very likely you may not see the use of some branches of
+science, or of reading some particular books. But do not fancy that in
+such matters you are wiser than older men, who have maturely considered
+these things again and again. If you mean to be your own guide and your
+own teacher, you had better have staid away from Oxford altogether. It
+is one great advantage of academical education, that a definite course
+of reading is marked out for you. When a young man,--indeed, when _any_
+man,--is left entirely to his own choice, he is apt to be distracted by
+the many different branches of study, the many different books, which
+present themselves, and to fall into a habit of desultory reading,
+productive of little lasting benefit. You are saved from this
+distraction and perplexity, throwing upon other shoulders the trouble
+and responsibility of making a proper choice.
+
+I believe almost every tutor now in Oxford, will direct his pupils to
+devote a certain portion of their time to the highest of all
+studies--the study of religion. Some knowledge of religion is absolutely
+indispensable, in order to pass your examination for your degree. But
+independently of all academical objects, you cannot help feeling
+satisfied that time so employed, is employed well and wisely. Such
+study, with the blessing of God upon it, will be beneficial to you
+through the whole of your future existence, both in this world and the
+next.
+
+Among the many advantages of an university education, must be reckoned
+the opportunity of attending public lectures, such lectures especially,
+as are illustrated, by an expensive philosophical apparatus, or by the
+inspection of actual specimens. The experiments conducted by means of
+such apparatus, and the handing round of specimens, are not only
+absolutely essential, oftentimes, to the comprehension of the science to
+which they belong, but contribute powerfully to fix it in the memory. If
+you can spare the time from your severer studies, and if your tutor does
+not disapprove, I should strongly advise you to attend in succession the
+lectures on natural philosophy,--on chemistry,--on mineralogy,--and on
+geology. Some acquaintance with these sciences, is in itself so
+interesting and useful, and is now so general, that you ought not, I
+think, to miss your present opportunity of acquiring it: so favourable
+an opportunity you will hardly meet with again.
+
+Much may be done by a judicious distribution of your time. When you have
+made such a distribution, keep to it steadily. Be peremptory with
+yourself in adhering to it, and be peremptory in preventing others from
+encroaching upon it,--from encroaching upon it, at least, unnecessarily.
+I suppose that, upon the average, you may get four or five hours' steady
+reading before dinner, and three or four after. This will leave you
+abundant time for exercise, for relaxation, and for society. Certainly
+it will not spare you any for mere _lounging_; either for lounging
+yourself, or being lounged upon by others. If you cannot avoid the
+latter by any other means, you will be reduced to the alternative of
+shutting your door, or, if that term is still in use, of _sporting oak_
+against them. If they reproach you, set them, as their punishment, to
+read the paper in the Idler on the robbery of time[62:1].
+
+Either of your time, or of your money, waste as little as possible upon
+newspapers. I admit, that of all periods of history, the time in which
+we actually live is, _to us_, the most interesting. I admit that, both
+with a view to your taking part in the conversation of general society,
+as well as upon other accounts, some knowledge of passing events is
+desirable, or even necessary. For such purposes, a rapid glance at the
+newspaper, or even what is picked up by hearsay, will, generally
+speaking, be sufficient. While reading for your degree, however, you
+really cannot spare time to read the newspapers _through_. The most
+important portions of them are, perhaps, the debates during the session
+of parliament, and the trials. Of the debates, a considerable part is
+very trifling and unprofitable; and, in order to read with real
+advantage those speeches which are most deserving of attention, it is
+necessary to be possessed of a considerable portion of that knowledge of
+history, of legislation, of political economy, of mercantile and
+financial transactions, the _foundations_ of which you are at Oxford
+engaged in laying. It is not to be wished that an under-graduate should
+affect to be an experienced politician, prepared to give a strong and
+decided opinion upon subjects, upon which able and experienced men,
+possessed of ten times his knowledge, find a difficulty in making up
+their mind. In the reports of trials, many curious facts, and much
+interesting information are to be found. In order to understand many of
+them, however, it is requisite to have a more intimate acquaintance with
+the rules of English jurisprudence, and with the practice of the courts,
+than can be expected in a young man as yet hardly set free from the
+eggshell of school. Upon the subject of newspapers, however, I will say
+no more. I well know, that in merely touching upon it, I tread upon
+delicate and debateable ground.
+
+Take sufficient time for relaxation; but let your relaxations, as far as
+you can, be intellectual and improving.
+
+Oxford now presents opportunities, both of acquiring some knowledge of
+natural history, and of cultivating a taste in the fine arts, which it
+by no means possessed when I was an under-graduate. For these we are
+principally indebted to those two admirable brothers[66:1], who have so
+long devoted their time, their money, their distinguished talents, and
+their various attainments, in the first place, to plans of beneficence,
+and in the next, to the advancement of science and the cultivation of
+taste. It is to them that we owe the enlargement, the arrangement, and
+in fact the greater part of the contents, of the Museum, which now
+contains a very interesting collection of specimens, particularly in
+British ornithology. To them we are indebted for the excellent casts (in
+the Radcliffe Library) from the most perfect specimens of sculpture, and
+for the beautiful models (in the Picture Gallery) of the most celebrated
+remains of ancient architecture. The Picture Gallery itself contains
+many paintings, which, if not of any great excellence as works of art,
+yet are well deserving of attention on very many accounts; and the
+copies from the Cartoons, especially if you can be assisted with a few
+hints from Richardson or Sir Joshua Reynolds, are most interesting
+objects of study and contemplation. I am surprised that the young men in
+Oxford make so little use of these advantages. Many of them seem hardly
+to be aware of their existence.
+
+Among other modes of relaxation, not unconnected with intellectual
+improvement, I should advise you to make yourself a little acquainted
+with our early English architecture. If you can buy or borrow either
+Bentham's Essay on Gothic Architecture, or Milner's accurate and elegant
+Treatise on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of England during the middle
+ages, you will need no other assistance, excepting, indeed, a friend
+disposed to go along with you in this pursuit. Oxford and its immediate
+neighbourhood will furnish you with many interesting specimens from the
+Saxon and Norman, in the cathedral, St. Peter's in the East, and Iffley
+church, down to the utter depravation of the art, or rather the total
+change of style, in the time of Henry the Eighth.
+
+These interesting pursuits, however, I mention, as you must follow them,
+if you follow them at all, merely _by the by_. They must not be suffered
+to interfere with your severer studies. When engaged in those studies,
+give them your whole undivided attention. _Whatsoever your hand, or your
+head, findeth to do, do it with all your might._
+
+The habits of study and of intellectual improvement, which you acquire
+at Oxford, you should carry with you into the vacation. During the
+vacation, you may, perhaps, take more time for society--the society
+especially of your own immediate family--and more for relaxation; but
+still do not _waste_ your time; still consider yourself as responsible
+for the right employment of it. Make sure of the ground which you gained
+during the term, by going over by yourself, what you then read with your
+tutor. Improve your acquaintance with the standard writers of our own
+country, and acquire some knowledge of modern history. In short, make
+the most of your leisure. Read Bishop Home's sermon on redeeming the
+time, and the papers in the Spectator and the Rambler to which he
+refers. Read, _and learn by heart_, what is said on the loss of time in
+the second of Young's Night Thoughts:
+
+    "Part with it as with money, sparing; pay
+    No moment but in purchase of its worth."
+
+But my letter grows long, and (you will say) tedious.
+
+  I remain,
+  My dear Nephew,
+  Your affectionate Uncle.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[62:1] Vol. I. No. 14.
+
+[66:1] John Duncan, Esq. and Philip Duncan, Esq. of New College.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI.
+
+PUNCTUALITY.
+
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+I ventured to give you some advice respecting the employment of your
+time; perhaps I ought to follow up that letter with a few remarks upon
+PUNCTUALITY. Unless you acquire the habit of punctuality, you will be
+apt, not only to lose your own time, but to make unjustifiable inroads
+upon the time of other persons.
+
+Endeavour, therefore, to _keep to your time_ in every appointment,
+whether the appointment be made by yourself or by others, (the college
+authorities for instance,) whether it be with a superior, an equal, or
+an inferior. Whether it be in a matter of business or in a matter of
+pleasure, try always to be true to it. Let this be your system and your
+habit. Some deviations from punctuality may now and then be unavoidable;
+but do not let them occur unless they _really are_ unavoidable in
+fairness and reason. If you have yourself made an appointment, your word
+is, to a certain degree, pledged to your keeping to it. The case is in
+some measure the same, when, though the appointment is actually made by
+others, you have acceded to it.
+
+Want of punctuality seems to proceed either from pride and
+superciliousness, or from some infirmity, some weakness of character.
+Most men try to be punctual in any appointment with a man of rank
+superior to themselves, especially if they have any object, any
+interest, in conciliating his favour. And, on the other hand, too many
+persons seem to feel themselves at liberty to be unpunctual in an
+appointment with an inferior. It is not worth while, they think, to care
+about being exact with one so much beneath them. "Let him wait till I am
+at leisure to attend to him," exclaims such a man, in the proud
+consciousness of superiority; and, perhaps, some trifle, or mere
+indolence, is all that he has to plead for his neglect.
+
+You, my dear nephew, have, I trust, long since learned, that you have no
+right to treat any man, however low his rank may be, with
+disrespect,--with any thing approaching to contempt. You well know, that
+both reason and religion require us to regard all men as our brothers,
+and that one of the golden rules of the latter is, _in lowliness of
+mind, let each esteem others better than himself_. Whatever a man's rank
+in life may be, he has a right to punctuality as he has a right to
+truth; and you have no right, by your unpunctuality, to rob him either
+of his time or his patience. Certainly you have no right to give him by
+such means the painful feeling that he is neglected, and neglected
+because he is despised.
+
+And thus, also, with men of your own age and your own rank in life; in
+all the little engagements and appointments, whether of business or of
+pleasure, which occur in the common intercourse of society, endeavour
+still to maintain the habit of punctuality. As every man wishes to have
+the character of being true to his word, so it will be to your credit to
+have the character of being true to your engagements, whether those
+engagements relate to great matters or to small.
+
+But though want of punctuality is sometimes occasioned by pride, it
+must more frequently proceed from a certain degree of weakness of
+character, or from mere indolence. A man acknowledges punctuality to be
+right and desirable, but cannot muster up sufficient energy and
+resolution. He cannot prevail upon himself to quit his bed, or his easy
+chair, or his fire-side, or the employment by which he chances to be
+occupied, till the time fixed on has passed away. His friends are kept
+waiting; those who have business to transact with him lose their temper;
+they, again, are perhaps disappointing others, and all because he had
+not sufficient decision of character, sufficient command of himself, to
+be punctual.
+
+You may remember seeing at my house my friend Mr. M.[78:1] He was at
+Oxford a very good-humoured fellow, and every body liked him; but he
+never could contrive to be in time for any thing. He got imposition upon
+imposition for being too late for chapel; he came to dine in hall when
+other men were going away; and his friends were almost afraid of making
+an appointment with him, either for business or for amusement, because
+they knew beforehand that he would not keep it. When, after leaving
+Oxford, he established himself as a country gentleman in his paternal
+mansion, the same habit still clung to him. No time was fixed for any
+thing, or if it was fixed, it was never kept. Neither his guests nor his
+servants knew at what hour either breakfast, or dinner, or any other
+domestic arrangement, would take place. Consequently, their time and
+their spirits were wasted in uncertainty. When engaged to dine at a
+neighbour's, perhaps he would forget the engagement altogether; or, if
+he chanced to remember it, would not arrive till the master of the feast
+had given him up in despair, after allowing possibly an extra half hour,
+during which, the solemn pause which sometimes takes place before
+dinner, had become more solemn, from the annoyance of seeing a whole
+party kept waiting by the unpunctuality of one person. The servants,
+meanwhile, were yawning and fidgetting backwards and forwards in the
+listlessness of expectation; the cook perplexed with the sore dilemma of
+seeing all the productions of her skill, either chilled with cold from
+being kept back, or burnt to a cinder; and the temper even of the lady
+of the house a little out of tune, from the certainty that the dinner
+would be spoiled. Of all these various vexations, the sole cause was to
+be found in Mr. M.'s want of energy. He could not bring himself,
+perhaps, either to shorten a pleasant ride, or to lay down a book which
+interested him, or to quit his own chair by the fire-side, in order to
+dress. The convenience and comfort, and for a time the good humour, of a
+whole company, were to be sacrificed to his indolence, his _vis
+inertiae_, and unpunctuality.
+
+Never permit yourself, my dear nephew, thus to trifle with the time or
+the temper of any persons, whether high or low, with whom you have any
+intercourse. Make a point of always being in time. I think it is said of
+Lord Nelson (though I cannot hit upon the passage in his life), that
+when some friend was fixing an appointment of importance at a certain
+hour, the hero added, "Say a quarter _before_--to that quarter _before_,
+I have owed all my success in life." I do not advise you actually to be
+_before_ the time of an engagement, which some people will complain of
+as being worse than being too late, but be so much beforehand as to be
+master of your time, or to have it in your power to be punctual almost
+to a minute. When you are received as a guest in a friend's house,
+consider compliance with the hours and habits of the family, as a
+natural return for the hospitality which is shown to you. There is
+something incongruous in seeing a young person deranging, by his
+unpunctuality, the economy and regularity of a whole household. And do
+not suffer the kindness and indulgence of your parents to induce you,
+when with them, to be less attentive to punctuality than you are, when
+with other persons of superior age or rank to yourself. Never let them
+wait for you; make a point of being always ready. An excellent friend of
+mine lays it down as a maxim, that _habitual unpunctuality is positive
+incivility_.
+
+I have alluded to the unpunctuality of one of my college friends: I will
+contrast it with the punctuality of another. The latter when at Oxford
+was distinguished for lively talents, and for an exuberance of spirits
+bursting forth into every possible variety of fun. He is now the owner
+of a spacious and splendid mansion, with a large establishment of
+servants, and often a considerable number of guests, attracted by his
+many amiable and excellent qualities. He still retains his playfulness
+of wit, but his domestic arrangements are a model of punctuality. Family
+prayers, and every meal, are to a minute. His guests and servants,
+consequently, know exactly what they have to depend on, the arrangements
+of the day, whether for business or for amusement, can be made with
+precision, and every thing is done at its proper time. This is
+punctuality on a greater scale. You and I, my dear nephew, must attend
+to it in smaller matters.
+
+  I remain,
+  My dear Nephew,
+  Your affectionate Uncle.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[78:1] Mr. M. is imaginary.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII.
+
+AMUSEMENTS.
+
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+In a former letter I recommended to you certain modes of relaxation,
+having some connection with intellectual improvement. You will, perhaps,
+tell me that you want relaxation more entire and complete; that the
+intellect requires perfect rest; that you must have _amusement_ in the
+strict etymological sense of the word. You may be right. I have already
+advised you to take sufficient time for _exercise_, and the exercise of
+the body will generally give rest and refreshment to the mind.
+
+In your choice of amusement, however--amusement, I mean, as combined
+with exercise--you must have strict regard to economy, both of money and
+of time. Do not think me an old woman, if I add, that regard for _both_
+should keep you from any excessive bodily exertion, such as will unfit
+you for study, or seriously affect your health. I am told that the
+latter effect has of late, not unfrequently, been the result of over
+fatigue in _rowing_; that many young men have died at an early age; that
+others live on with all their powers debilitated, from having
+overstrained their nerves, and their whole muscular system, in
+boat-races. Rowing is in itself a salutary and delightful species of
+exercise; and the facility of practising it, is one among the many
+advantages of Oxford; but when carried to the excess which I have
+alluded to, it is foolish and culpable.
+
+I would have a young man regardless of danger, willing to risk limbs,
+health, or life itself, for the benefit of his fellow-creatures. He
+should, like Hamlet, "hold his life at a pin's fee," when any adequate
+object is to be answered by putting it in jeopardy. But a man has _no
+right_ to risk either his life or his limbs for a bravado, in mere idle
+vanity and ostentation. Such wanton risk is cruelty to his parents and
+friends, and a presumptuous tempting of Providence.
+
+_Riding_, for riding's sake, must, with your finances, be out of the
+question. The utmost that you ought to allow yourself, is a hack once or
+twice a term, for some specific purpose--to visit a distant friend,
+perhaps, or to see some interesting object lying beyond the range of a
+walk. What I have said of riding, applies, with ten-fold force, to
+hunting, which entails expense--(the hire of a hunter, the hire of a
+hack probably to take you to cover, sundry ostlers and helpers, and very
+likely a jovial dinner at an inn)--utterly inconsistent with an average
+allowance; which entails, also, a waste of time, which, in the short
+period of an Oxford residence, can ill be spared.
+
+What shall I say of _cricket_? I have great respect for cricket, as a
+national and a manly game. The demand which it makes upon your Oxford
+time is confined to the short term between Easter and the long vacation,
+and it does not require a very large portion of the day. It is not
+_necessarily_ attended with any expense. Whether the incidental expenses
+of _uniform_ (if you belong to a club), tent, dinner, &c. &c. are such
+as you can fairly afford, is for your consideration. They need not be
+high, and, in my good will to the game, I am anxious that they should
+be kept down.
+
+_Tennis_ is an animated game, of much variety in itself, and requiring
+great variety of muscular exertion. It is connected with many historical
+and chivalrous recollections, and carries the mind back to our Henry the
+Fifth and the "mocking Dauphin" of France. As it cannot be played
+without a spacious and expensive edifice, it is altogether an
+aristocratic game, and demands an aristocratic purse. It is a game which
+requires a good deal of practice, and, consequently, a good deal of
+expenditure, in order to acquire a tolerable degree of skill; and your
+skill will seldom have an opportunity of showing itself after you have
+quitted Oxford, as you will seldom fall in with a tennis-court. I have
+no hesitation in saying, that you, my dear nephew, have no money that
+you have a right to spend upon yourself in this manner.
+
+You will never, I trust, annoy any of the neighbouring country
+gentlemen, by attacking their game. You know how tender a point this is,
+and how susceptible most landed proprietors are upon the subject; and
+your own good feeling, and sense of propriety, and common fairness, will
+prevent you from trespassing in this manner. You can imagine how
+indignant you would yourself feel at such an invasion, and will not be
+guilty towards another of a wrong, of which you would complain loudly
+if it were offered to yourself.
+
+After all, _walking_ is the cheapest exercise, and, perhaps, the best.
+If you wish to give it variety, you will find plenty of ditches to leap,
+steeps to ascend, and hills to run up or down. And, dull as are most of
+the great roads leading into Oxford, the country round abounds in
+interesting objects within reach of a walk. There is much natural
+scenery, possessed of a good deal of variety and picturesque character;
+and there are many buildings, and remains of buildings, which either
+from something in themselves, or from adventitious circumstances, well
+deserve to be looked at. The church at Cumnor, for instance, not only
+has within itself much to interest a man fond of architectural or
+antiquarian investigation, but, in common with the remains or site of
+Cumnor hall, and the village of Dry Sandford, have acquired a sort of
+classical notoriety from the magical pen of Sir Walter Scott. The
+picturesque ruins of the kitchen, and other buildings at Stanton
+Harcourt, the slight vestiges of Godston Nunnery, the Town Hall, the
+Gaol, and the two churches at Abingdon, may all become, each in its
+turn, the object of a pedestrian expedition. The residence of the
+Speaker, Lenthall, at Bessilsleigh, may deserve notice, from historical
+recollections, though for no other reason. The Saxon church in Iffley I
+have already mentioned. The recently-built Saxon chapel at Kennington is
+done in excellent taste, and is a most gratifying instance of the
+munificence and piety of an individual clergyman, devoting, I believe,
+almost all his resources to the work. The church at Wytham will show you
+that a church very lately erected may, by correct judgment, be made to
+present the appearance of having been built five hundred years ago. But
+I must not go on in this way, or you will think that you have got hold
+of an Oxford guide. Most of the villages and village churches in the
+neighbourhood, have some character of their own worth examining.
+
+So much for amusements connected with exercise, which has led me into
+something like a repetition of some of the sentiments in a former
+letter.
+
+A few words on sedentary amusements.
+
+If you read _in earnest_, and are bent upon making the most of your
+time, you will have little of it left for amusements of a sedentary
+nature.
+
+The less you have to do with cards the better. Young men can have no
+occasion for the assistance of cards in order to pass their time; and
+there seems to be something almost incongruous in the idea of _their_
+sitting down to a rubber. Nor do they need the excitement: if they wish
+for it, that very wish is a reason why they ought not to have it. If
+they play for money--or, at all events, if they play for such sums as
+make the winning or losing an object of any degree of consequence--they
+become gamblers; and of the many bad passions which gambling sometimes
+calls into activity, and of the destructive consequences which it
+entails, no one is ignorant. If you once get into the habit of playing,
+you will, perhaps, not know when to stop. Cards are very seductive, and
+you may find yourself become a gambler almost before you are aware of
+it. Perhaps the best plan is _not to know_ how to play, which furnishes
+an answer always ready.
+
+Chess is a game of elegance and interest, and the being a good
+chess-player, carries with it a certain impression of general ability
+and of intellectual activity and resource. Perhaps I may allow that
+playing at chess adds a certain degree of interest to the perusal of the
+history of a campaign, whether ancient or modern, with its various
+moves, its checks and counter-checks, its retreats and _castlings_. But
+chess is a fascinating game, and will be apt to make larger demands upon
+your time than you can afford. If you indulge in it at all, you must be
+peremptory with yourself in resisting its tendency to incroach either
+upon your time or your _temper_. Sometimes, too, it requires so much
+exertion of thought,--is such a strain upon the mind,--that it hardly
+can answer the purposes of relaxation. If you play, by all means read
+Franklin's Essay on the Morals of Chess. For clearness of head, for
+truth-telling simplicity and honesty of purpose, and for perspicuity and
+liveliness of style, Franklin has, perhaps, no superior.
+
+Always recollect that improvement, moral and intellectual, is the great
+object for which you were sent to Oxford. With that object nothing must
+be suffered to interfere.
+
+  I remain, &c. &c.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII.
+
+EXPENSES, AND RUNNING IN DEBT.
+
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+I do not know exactly what allowance your father has been able to give
+you, but whatever it may be, I trust that you are resolutely determined
+to keep within it. This will, of course, require a good deal of care and
+attention. Many young men, when, upon going to the University, they find
+in their pockets a much larger sum than they ever possessed before,
+fancy themselves rich, and at liberty to allow themselves various
+unnecessary indulgences. The consequence is, that they become entangled
+in debts, from which they can never extricate themselves during their
+continuance at Oxford. Be on your guard against getting thus hampered.
+Take it for granted, that the regular and necessary claims upon your
+finances will leave but little over for the indulgence of pleasure or
+fancy.
+
+The expenses of an University education are often most unfairly
+exaggerated by writers and speakers, who are fond of running down all
+old institutions. These carpers affect to set down to the score of the
+University all the money that is spent by the young men who reside in
+it. They seem to forget that, wherever a young man may be, he must eat
+and drink, and must purchase clothes suitable to his station in society.
+I was myself, as you probably know, at Christ Church, where I took my
+degree, and afterwards became a Fellow of Oriel. At Oriel, (which may
+probably be taken as a fair average of the rest of the University,) the
+_necessary_ annual expenses of a commoner are from 70l. to 80l., or
+thereabouts[101:1]. This includes room-rent, batels, (that is,
+breakfast, dinner, &c. _exclusive_ of tea and sugar), tuition,
+University and College dues, coals, letters, washing, servants. The
+University dues are less than 1l. per annum. There are, perhaps, few
+places in England, where a gentleman can be comfortably lodged and
+boarded at a much cheaper rate. Still there will always be many
+incidental expenses, and you must put in practice a pretty severe
+economy in order to meet them.
+
+In the manner in which you spend your money, as in every thing else,
+accustom yourself to a certain degree of self-denial. Do not buy any
+thing merely because it hits your fancy, and you think you should _like
+to have it_, but consider whether you cannot easily _do without it_. Be
+as liberal as you can reasonably afford to be in assisting others,
+especially the poor, but spend as little as you can help upon yourself.
+Above all, never buy, or order, any thing which you are unable to pay
+for.
+
+The habit of running in debt is pregnant with evil and misery of every
+description. It often--perhaps generally--amounts to positive
+dishonesty. The money which you owe a tradesman is really his property.
+The articles, which you have received from him, are hardly your own,
+until you have paid for them. If you keep them, without paying for them
+when the seller wishes and asks for payment, you deprive a man of that
+which belongs to him; and is not that something approaching to robbery?
+To a man possessed of proper feeling and a nice sense of honour, it must
+be very painful to suffer a tradesman to ask twice for what is clearly
+his right. To affect to be offended with such an application, and to
+meet it with superciliousness and insolence, is injustice carried to its
+height.
+
+The manner in which some men, who would be ready to shoot any one who
+disputed their claims to be considered as gentlemen, treat their
+creditors, whom they choose to call _duns_, would, from its contrariety
+to any thing like reason, be almost ludicrous, if it were not so
+culpable, so cruel, and so dishonest.
+
+A tradesman, from not being able to recover the money owed to him, sees
+himself in danger of losing his credit, and, together with his credit,
+the means of getting a maintenance; he sees his wife and children
+perhaps upon the very verge of misery, and yet, if he civilly asks for
+what is his due, he is considered as troublesome and impertinent,
+perhaps reproached and insulted!
+
+Upon this subject I shall allow myself to quote the words of Delany, the
+friend of Dean Swift, one of the most animated and sensible of our
+sermon writers.
+
+"Running in debt with tradesmen, and neglecting to pay them in due time,
+is utterly ruinous to the whole business of trade and commerce, and
+absolutely destructive of the very principles upon which it is built,
+and by which it subsists; and yet this is a crime every day committed by
+men of fortune and quality, with as little remorse as they eat and
+drink; and if the tradesman demands his money, it is odds but he is
+either threatened or turned into a jest. The son of Sirach's wise
+observation is here every day verified, merely substituting the words
+_rich_ and _poor_, for the words _debtor_ and _creditor_. _The debtor
+hath done wrong, and yet he threateneth; the creditor is wronged, and
+yet he must entreat also._ If threats will not rid these men of their
+importunate creditors, then are they to be deluded with fair words and
+plausible excuses, to pay attendance from day to day, to the loss of
+more time, and neglect of more business, than perhaps the debt is worth;
+and so the first injury, instead of being repaired is doubled. And yet
+the _gentleman_ debtor, the author of this evil, is so far from
+repenting of it, that it is odds but he vaunts his wit and dexterity in
+doing it. _As a mad man_ (saith Solomon) _who casteth firebrands,
+arrows, and death: so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and
+saith, Am I not in jest?_ And, indeed, it is scarce to be conceived how
+any man can deal more destruction and ruin around him, than by deceiving
+and breaking faith with the fair trader; for it is well known, his
+credit, his whole subsistence, depends upon keeping his word, and being
+strictly punctual in his payments and his promises; and, if he fail in
+these, he is undone at once. And how is it possible he should not fail,
+if the gentlemen he deals with fail him? He hath no way of raising money
+but by sale of his goods; and if those to whom they are trusted will not
+pay him, it is impossible he can pay his creditors; and, if he do not
+pay them, it is impossible but he must be ruined, and, perhaps, many
+more with him. For traders are linked and dependent on one another; and
+one man's fall throws down many more with him: the shop-keeper is in
+debt to the maker or the merchant; and these again to the journeyman,
+the farmer, or the foreign correspondent; and so the ruin becomes
+complicated, and extended beyond imagination!"
+
+"Credit is to a tradesman what honour is to a gentleman: to a man that
+is truly such, (a gentleman,) his honour is as dear as his life: to the
+trader, credit is as life itself; for he cannot live without it."
+
+You, my dear nephew, will never, I trust, stoop so low as to be guilty
+of such dishonesty. But then you must keep a vigilant eye upon your
+expenses. Paying ready money for every thing may be sometimes
+inconvenient, and may, perhaps, occasion mistakes; but never leave
+Oxford for a vacation without clearing off every thing that you owe.
+Take receipts, and keep them. The most honest and respectable tradesman
+may sometimes, in the hurry of business, omit to cross a charge out of
+his book, and will feel a satisfaction in having any doubt as to payment
+removed. Have such receipts tied up and docketed, so that you may refer
+to any one of them readily.
+
+Never suffer yourself to be led into needless expense by the example of
+your companions, and never be ashamed of saying that you cannot afford
+it.
+
+We sometimes see weak young men vying with each other in the expensive
+elegance of their furniture and dress, or in the luxury of their
+entertainments. A man of large fortune produces at his table a variety
+of costly wines, abundance of ice, and a splendid dessert. Others, from
+a silly vanity, affect to do the same, although such expensive luxuries
+are altogether inconsistent with their finances, and with the general
+habits of men in their rank of life. The more such expenses and foolish
+ostentation can be checked by the college _authorities_ the better. At
+all events, do not _you_ be so weak as to fall into them. There is no
+disgrace in being poor, but there is disgrace and dishonesty too, in
+contracting debts which you are unable to discharge.
+
+Some young Oxonians, I am afraid, after spending the larger portion of
+their allowance upon amusements and self-indulgence, drive off the
+payment of what they regard as their more _creditable_ debts till they
+take their degree, under the idea that they will then be paid by their
+fathers. This is a most unwarrantable,--sometimes a _cruel_,--drain upon
+parental kindness. Poets may well speak of university expenses "pinching
+parents black and blue[112:1]," when this is the case.
+
+The majority of parents, as I have already said, do not send their sons
+to the University without some degree of pecuniary inconvenience to
+themselves. It is, indeed, hard upon them, when, in addition to an
+annual allowance, which, probably, they have furnished not without
+difficulty, they are called upon for a considerable sum, in order to
+save their sons' credit--perhaps in order to enable him to take his
+degree. For you are aware that an unpaid tradesman has the power, if he
+thinks fit to exert it, of stopping the degree of a spendthrift
+under-graduate. This power, I believe, is seldom, if ever, exercised.
+But surely the being liable to it, through your own misconduct and
+extravagance, would be attended with a feeling of painful humiliation.
+
+  I remain,
+  My dear Nephew,
+  Your affectionate Uncle.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[101:1] June, 1832.
+
+[112:1] Cowper.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX.
+
+TEMPERANCE.
+
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+In the present state of society, it is, perhaps, less necessary than it
+would have been formerly, that I should give you any caution or advice
+on the subject of _temperance_. Five-and-thirty years ago, it was
+customary to drink a good deal of wine after dinner, and young men at
+Oxford were not behind-hand with the rest of the world in complying with
+this bad custom.
+
+It was _then_ generally the system, to initiate a freshman by making
+him completely drunk. Scripture is by no means sufficiently listened to
+_now_, but perhaps its warnings were less known and less regarded
+_then_. The master of the revels and his abettors were ignorant, or
+unmindful, of the threatenings denounced by the voice of
+Inspiration,--_Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that
+puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also_: and again--_Woe
+unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle
+strong drink_. Regardless of these denunciations, and trusting to the
+strength of their own heads, and the practised discipline of their own
+stomachs, their _noble_ ambition was to make drunk as many of their
+guests as possible, especially any luckless freshman who chanced to be
+of the party. Those who, whether from religious principle or from
+manliness of character, did not choose to submit to be made drunk, were
+obliged either to encounter these _kind_ endeavours with sturdy
+resistance,--resistance which sometimes occasioned a total cessation of
+intercourse and acquaintance,--or to evade them by stratagem. Glass
+after glass was dexterously emptied upon the carpet under the table, or
+the purple stream sought concealment under heaps of walnut-shells and
+orange-peel. In short, at a tolerably large wine-party there was wasted,
+or _worse than wasted_, a quantity of Port wine sufficient to check the
+ravages of a typhus fever in an entire village.
+
+These days of _Celtic barbarism_ are, I hope, utterly passed away. As in
+general society very little wine is consumed, (_excepting at dinner_,)
+so Oxford has caught the spirit of the times, and the bacchanalian
+revels to which I have alluded are, I believe, much less common than
+they were formerly, if not entirely exploded. I am afraid, however, that
+even now more wine is drunk in some colleges, than is consistent either
+with Christian temperance, or with habits of study, or with the
+preservation of health.
+
+I need not point out to _you_, my dear nephew, the evils which, in a
+religious point of view, result from drinking to excess. You, I well
+know, would shudder at the idea of wilfully depriving yourself of
+reason, and of sinking yourself to the situation of a beast or of a
+maniac. A man, who has thrown away his reason, has little right to hope
+for the continuance of the assisting and preventing grace of God. And
+destitute of the controlling guidance, both of reason and of Divine
+Grace, what is there left to prevent his ungoverned passions from
+carrying him into the most perilous excesses? There are deadly vices, to
+which young men are, at all times, but too powerfully solicited by their
+natural appetites; and when those appetites are stimulated by drinking,
+and all salutary control shaken off, the danger is great indeed. You
+perhaps may remember an Eastern apologue to the following effect, (I
+know not where to find it): The Devil having, by the impulse of terror,
+induced a holy man to consent to commit _some_ crime, allowed him to
+choose, whether he would get drunk, or be guilty of either of two of the
+most horrible enormities he could conceive. The poor victim chose
+drunkenness, as being the least offence, but in the state to which he
+had thus brought himself, was guilty of all three.
+
+And even if you are kept back from any additional guilt, yet you well
+know, that by throwing away your reason, you become capable of being
+guilty of all sorts of absurdities,--that you are liable to say and do a
+hundred foolish things, of which, when you return to your senses, you
+will be heartily ashamed,--that you expose yourself to the ridicule and
+contempt of those, who witness the degraded state to which you have
+reduced yourself.
+
+A drunken _Christian_ is almost a contradiction in terms; and something
+the same may be said of a drunken _gentleman_. Among many in the middle
+and the industrious classes of society, there is much intelligence, much
+quick perception of what is morally right, and of general propriety of
+behaviour. As such men are not backward in shewing respect, where
+respect is really due, so they are keen-sighted in detecting gross
+inconsistencies of conduct, and ready to bestow the full measure of
+contempt upon those, who, while placed above them by the advantages of
+birth, and fortune, and education, yet meanly condescend, by their vices
+and their excesses, to degrade themselves below them.
+
+The inconsistency of any excess in drinking, with the main purpose for
+which you were sent to Oxford, is palpable. You go to Oxford professedly
+for study. Independently of the time actually occupied by a wine-party,
+any excess will, probably, indispose you for study the morning after;
+
+                      Corpus onustum
+    Hesternis vitiis animum quoque praegravat una,
+    Atque affigit humo divinae particulam aurae.
+
+You will rise from your bed heavy and languid, probably with some
+disposition to headache; and will be far more inclined to lounge in an
+easy-chair, or to saunter about in listless idleness, than to sit down
+to active mental exertion.
+
+I must add, that the habit of drinking much wine during your continuance
+at Oxford, is not unlikely materially to injure your health in the
+succeeding periods of your life. Such habit has a tendency permanently
+to derange and weaken the digestive powers, and to injure and harden the
+internal coats and the orifices of the stomach. I am persuaded, that
+much of the tendency to apoplectic and paralytic affections; much of the
+general indisposition, which we often witness in men advanced beyond the
+middle period of the usual term of human life,--men who have of late
+perhaps, lived temperately--is to be attributed to the wine which they
+drank when young.
+
+But I will not dwell longer on the evils of excessive drinking. You know
+the admonitions of Scripture,--_Take heed lest at any time your hearts
+be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. Be not drunk with wine,
+wherein is excess._ You know that _drunkards cannot inherit the kingdom
+of God_; you know that drunkenness is spoken of by St. Paul as being the
+vice of those, who remain sunk in the thick darkness of ignorance and
+heathenism, and as utterly unbefitting those who are blessed with the
+light of the Gospel. Indeed, it is unworthy of any man possessed only of
+common sense.
+
+Guard, then, my dear nephew, against this degrading habit with
+determined resolution. Let neither the example, nor the solicitations,
+nor the taunting jests of your companions, induce you to demean yourself
+so far, as to be guilty of a vice so utterly unworthy of you, both as a
+man and as a Christian. If they, for their amusement, were to request
+you to cut off your right hand, you would not feel bound to comply with
+them. Do not, for their gratification, expose yourself in the condition
+of a fool, or an idiot. Do not, in order to please a party of
+thoughtless revellers, incur the displeasure of Almighty God, and run
+the hazard of eternal ruin.
+
+And take care, that you do not yourself _acquire_ a taste for any such
+sensual indulgences. "The appetite for intoxicating liquors," says
+Paley, "appears to be almost always _acquired_." Guard against the first
+beginnings of intemperance. _Principiis obsta._ If you are not on your
+guard, you will be in danger of being carried on, step by step, until
+retreat becomes out of the question.
+
+You would avoid many trials of your firmness, and be relieved probably
+from much irksome importunity, if you could make up your mind to
+renounce wine altogether. This you would do with the less difficulty, if
+backed by the sanction of medical advice. I apprehend that most medical
+men, if desired to give their _candid_ opinion, would recommend
+abstinence from wine as conducive to a _young_ man's health both of body
+and mind. I knew _water-drinkers_ at Oxford, who yielded to none of
+their companions in liveliness and all social qualities, either in their
+own room or at the wine-party of a friend. Many young men in the army,
+I believe, adopt this system, from motives both of moral and of
+economical prudence. A pint, or even half a pint, of wine per day, makes
+a considerable hole in the pay of a subaltern, or in the stipend of a
+country curate, or in the allowance of a briefless barrister. Avoid
+acquiring factitious wants. Do not by habit make wine necessary to your
+comfort. It is wise, when young, not to indulge in luxuries which in any
+future period of your life you probably will not be able to afford,
+consistently with the claims which will then be pressing upon you. I
+throw out this idea, however, for your own consideration, without urging
+it as matter of positive advice. I think, however, that your intellect
+will be clearer, and your mind often more cheerful, if you comply with
+the suggestion.
+
+Shall I add a word or two upon temperance in _eating_? I hope that there
+are few young men who are apt to be guilty of the _porcine_ vice of
+eating to excess; in plain English--of _gluttony_. Perhaps, however, the
+temptations of a well-appointed dinner, prepared by an exquisite
+_artiste_, may induce them occasionally to transgress. It is, perhaps,
+hardly fair to quote from any thing so well known as Addison's paper on
+Temperance, in the Spectator[128:1], but it is much to my purpose. "It
+is said of Diogenes, that meeting a young man who was going to a feast,
+he took him up in the street, and carried him home to his friends, as
+one who was running into imminent danger, had not he prevented him. What
+would that philosopher have said, had he been present at the luxury of a
+modern meal? Would he not have thought the master of a family mad, and
+have begged his servants to tie down his hands, had he seen him devour
+fowl, fish, and flesh; swallow oil and vinegar, wines and spices; throw
+down salads of twenty different sorts, sauces of a hundred ingredients,
+confections and fruits of numberless sweets and flavours? What unnatural
+motions and counter-ferments must such a medley of intemperance produce
+in the body? For my part, when I behold a fashionable table, set out in
+all its magnificence, I fancy that I see gouts and dropsies, fevers and
+lethargies, with innumerable distempers, lying in ambuscade among the
+dishes."
+
+"Nature delights in the most plain and simple diet." He then gives some
+rules for temperance, which are well worth attending to. This passage of
+Addison is much in the spirit of that of Horace:
+
+                ----"Variae res
+    Ut noceant homini, credas, memor illius escae
+    Quae simplex olim tibi sederit. At simul assis
+    Miscueris elixa, simul conchylia turdis;
+    Dulcia se in bilem vertent, stomachoque tumultum
+    Lenta feret pituita."
+
+Most of the modern writers on dietetics, as well as those who have
+preceded them, recommend a very considerable abridgment of the quantity
+of food, usually consumed at the table of the affluent.
+
+And while I strongly advise you to be rather abstemious as to _quantity_
+of food, so I wish you not to be in the slightest degree fastidious as
+to its _quality_, provided it is wholesome, and free from qualities
+absolutely revolting. You may naturally like one thing better than
+another, and partake of what you prefer, when it comes in your way; but
+it is painful to see a young man of any intellect indulging in the
+niceties of an epicure, and really appearing to care much about what he
+eats, and what he drinks. When I commenced the life of a country
+clergyman, I was often received, with almost parental kindness, in a
+house, in which good taste of all kinds,--moral, intellectual, social,
+and _culinary_,--presided in an eminent degree. Every now and then, some
+particular dish made its appearance, under the impression that I was
+particularly fond of it. Probably I had eaten of it some days before,
+because it chanced to be near me, or from some similar accident. I was
+grateful for the kindness and attention, but felt mortified, almost
+degraded, at its being supposed that I cared about one thing more than
+another, where all were good and wholesome.
+
+Do not get into the habit of spending your money in ices, and other
+delicacies, at the pastry-cook's and confectioner's. You say that you
+are hungry;--
+
+            "--------Panis
+    Latrantem stomachum bene leniet."
+
+If your hunger would disdain a piece of dry bread, it certainly has no
+claim to be attended to at all. You say that you can _afford_ to indulge
+yourself in the delicacies to which I have alluded. I do not think that
+you can; at all events, your money may be more worthily spent--
+
+      "Non est melius quo insumere possis?
+    Cur eget indignus quisquam, te divite? Quare
+    Templa ruunt antiqua Deum?"
+
+In other words, if you have the money to spare, give it to the
+deserving poor, or to the Church-building Society. Few expenses are
+more unsatisfactory in retrospect,--I had almost said, more
+_disgraceful_,--than those which have been incurred by sensual
+self-indulgence; incurred to gratify a vitiated palate and a pampered
+appetite.
+
+Self-denial is recommended by the classical writers of antiquity, as
+well as by the most sensible of modern authors; and, what is of
+infinitely more importance, is strongly inculcated by the Christian
+religion. But how shall self-denial be practised _at all_, if it cannot
+be practised in the low matter of eating and drinking?
+
+Read again and again the paper of Addison, and the Satire of Horace,
+(the second of the second Book), from which I have made my quotations.
+Read also the following passages from that accurate observer of the
+habits and manners of social life, the son of Sirach:
+
+_If thou sit at a bountiful table, be not greedy upon it, and say not,
+There is much meat on it.--Eat, as it becometh a man, those things that
+are set before thee; and devour not, lest thou be hated. Leave off
+first for manners' sake; and be not insatiable, lest thou offend._
+
+_A very little is sufficient for a man well nurtured, and he fetcheth
+not his wind short upon his bed._
+
+_Sound sleep cometh of moderate eating; he riseth early, and his wits
+are with him: but the pain of watching, and choler, and pangs of the
+belly, are with an insatiable man._
+
+  I remain,
+  My dear Nephew,
+  Your affectionate Uncle.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[128:1] No. 195.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.
+
+ENGLISH READING.
+
+
+MY DEAR NEPHEW,
+
+When at Oxford, you will not have much time for any reading, excepting
+that which has some reference to your examination. During the vacations,
+however, which occupy about half the year, you are more at liberty, and
+will do well, as I have already suggested to you, to give a good deal of
+your leisure to increasing your acquaintance with the classical writers
+of your own language.
+
+Both at Oxford and home, endeavour, on most days, to catch some little
+portion of time,--a quarter of an hour may be sufficient,--for religious
+reading. Melmoth's "Great Importance of a Religious Life," and the
+abridgment of Law's "Serious Call," adopted by the Society for Promoting
+Christian Knowledge, are two of the best books that occur to me, for the
+purpose of impressing you with the absolute necessity, of giving
+religion the first place in your thoughts and your heart. You may read
+either of them through in an hour. Of the former, 42,000 copies were
+sold in the eighteen years preceding 1784. I mention this as an evidence
+of its popularity.
+
+Some thirty years ago I was requested by a friend, to recommend some
+practical book to put into the hands of a young person. I named Nelson's
+"Practice of True Devotion," and have since seen no reason to alter my
+opinion. Let that be one of the first books that you make use of. If you
+read _one_ chapter each day (and do not read more), it will last you
+about three weeks. After an interval of a year or so, go through it
+again.
+
+Take next for this purpose Jeremy Taylor's "Holy Living and Dying,"
+first reading (if you can borrow the book) what is said of this work by
+his highly-gifted and most amiable editor, Bishop Heber. One passage
+from Heber's remarks I must allow myself to quote: "But I will not
+select, where all may be read with advantage, and can hardly be read
+without admiration. To clothe virtue in its most picturesque and
+attractive colouring; to enforce with all the terrors of the divine law,
+its essential obligations; and to distinguish, in almost every instance
+most successfully, between what is prudent and what is necessary; what
+may fitly be done, and what cannot safely be left undone;--this is the
+triumph of a Christian moralist; and this Jeremy Taylor has, in a great
+degree, achieved in his Discourse on Holy Living." You will recollect
+that this book was written nearly two hundred years ago, and must not be
+surprised if you find a few expressions, and one or two sentiments,
+rather obsolete. One of the five rules which Taylor gives in his
+Dedication, "for the application of the counsels which follow," applies
+to all books of a similar character. "They that will, with profit, make
+use of the proper instruments of virtue, must so live as if they were
+always under the physician's hand. For the counsels of religion are not
+to be applied to the distempers of the soul, as men used to take
+hellebore; _but they must dwell together with the spirit of a man, and
+be twisted about his understanding for ever: they must be used like
+nourishment, that is, by a daily care and meditation_--not like a single
+medicine, and upon the actual pressure of a present necessity."
+
+The genuine spirit of Jeremy Taylor, with more correctness of taste, is
+found in that delightful book, "The Christian Year." Read it repeatedly.
+It is every where full of poetry, and of the purest devotional feeling.
+The more you are imbued with the spirit which pervades that beautiful
+volume, the more fit you will be to have your part in "the communion of
+saints," among _the spirits of just men made perfect_.
+
+Archbishop Seeker's Lectures on the Catechism, contain a body of
+divinity, doctrinal and practical, singularly judicious and useful. They
+are full of good sense and accurate information. The style, perhaps, is
+rather involved, and not very engaging; but you see a mind in full
+possession of its subject, anxious to put you in full possession of it
+also, without omitting any thing of importance.
+
+Gilpin's Lectures on the Catechism are of a different character. This
+also is a very good and a very pleasing book, written with a particular
+view to young persons engaged in reading the Greek and Latin Classics.
+
+Ogden's Sermons, on Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, &c. are
+the offspring of a clear and powerful intellect, expressed in language
+remarkably perspicuous and elegant.
+
+_After_ these books, take some opportunity of reading the Sermons of
+Bishop Butler, including the Preface. This is not a book to be read in a
+room full of brothers and sisters. It demands close attention, and will
+give some exercise to all your intellectual powers; but it richly merits
+to have such attention and pains bestowed upon it. It deserves, indeed
+requires, more than a single reading. After Butler's Sermons read his
+"Analogy."
+
+You will do well, at any odd intervals, or _snatches_ of time, to make
+yourself familiar with Addison and Johnson. False delicacy shall not
+prevent me from recommending the selection from the writings of Addison
+which I made a few years ago. My reasons for making such selection are
+given in the Preface. The same reasons now induce me to recommend it to
+you.
+
+Johnson requires no pruning. You can hardly read a paper in the Rambler
+or Idler, and, I will add, the Adventurer, without deriving from it some
+improvement, either moral or intellectual, or both. The structure and
+cadence of Johnson's sentences is certainly monotonous; but I seldom
+read half a page without being struck by the depth of his thought, the
+accuracy and minuteness of his observation, and the astonishing extent
+of his multifarious reading.
+
+In order to enter with more discrimination into the style of our
+different authors, read often "Blair's Lectures." They are, I believe,
+sometimes spoken slightingly of by men of learning; I, however, as an
+unlearned man, think them particularly useful. The Lecture on the Origin
+of Language, indeed, the absurdity of which has been exposed with so
+much playfulness by Cowper, might well have been omitted.
+
+I have already advised you, during the two longer vacations, to acquire,
+or to keep up, some knowledge of modern history. Russell's "Modern
+Europe" is, upon the whole, a useful book. It is, perhaps, too
+compendious; and I dislike its being given in the form of letters.
+Robertson's "Charles the Fifth" you have probably read already; if not,
+read it carefully when, in Russell, you arrive at the period at which it
+commences. Pay particular attention to the First Book. Perhaps Robertson
+was not sufficiently impressed with the importance and the effects of
+the Reformation in Germany; and he formed, I think, an unfair estimate
+of the character and motives of Luther. This matter will, I doubt not,
+be shortly set right in the Life of Luther about to be given to the
+public by one of the ablest and most learned men of the present
+day[147:1].
+
+With respect to the history of our own country, I hardly know what
+advice to give you. Hume's style is very pleasing, but he cannot be
+implicitly depended on, especially where religion and the ministers of
+religion are concerned.
+
+Henry's "History of Great Britain" is a very good and accurate book; but
+the continuity of the narrative is broken by the multiplicity of
+divisions in each period, (learning, arts, commerce, manners, &c. &c.),
+and by the transitions to the history of Scotland.
+
+Lingard I have not read; I am told that his style is good, and his
+information extensive. It was natural that, as a zealous Romanist, he
+should seek to extenuate the faults of men of his own persuasion, and to
+exaggerate the failings, and place in an unfavourable point of view the
+motives and actions of the assailants of Popery; but he has, I think,
+been fully convicted of carrying misrepresentation beyond all reasonable
+bounds. There was but too much of bigotry and persecution on both sides.
+
+Turner's History is, I believe, strictly honest and impartial, and a
+work of prodigious labour and research.
+
+But in our attention to prose writers, we must not forget the classical
+poets of our own country. Make yourself familiarly acquainted with
+Shakspeare, Milton, and Pope. The more you read of Young and Cowper, the
+better. Young is sometimes turgid, with a good deal of bad taste; but he
+abounds in real poetry, and in strong truths most forcibly expressed.
+Cowper sometimes carries simplicity to the verge of being prosaic; but
+he is generally graceful, often pathetic, and sometimes approaches to
+sublimity. Of both, it was the common object to increase the influence
+of genuine Christianity; of both, the perusal has a direct tendency to
+make you a better and a more religious man.
+
+Two of our most distinguished living poets--Sir Walter Scott and
+Southey--have seen their poetry cast into shade by the popularity of
+their own prose. The poems of both will live, and have justice done them
+by posterity. "Madoc" was many years ago recommended to me by one of the
+most able, and most candid, of our living authors. I read it with much
+interest. "The Curse of Kehama" is full of high and wild poetry; and
+"Roderick, the last of the Goths" gives a noble picture of deep
+penitence and of devoted patriotism. You will hardly read any ten lines
+of the longer poems of Sir Walter Scott, without meeting with some
+striking beauty of expression or of sentiment.
+
+I am afraid, however, that the English poets, both those of former times
+and those of the present day, have been, in great measure, superseded,
+among you young Oxonians, by Lord Byron. In almost every
+under-graduate's room that I happen to enter, _he_ seems to have taken
+possession. Lord Byron, as a poet, has certainly many transcendant
+merits,--merits which are peculiarly fascinating to young men. The
+interest which I,--which _every one_,--naturally must feel in the moral
+and intellectual habits and pursuits of such an important portion of the
+community, makes me deeply lament the noble poet's excessive popularity
+among you. I am perfectly aware, that by the following remarks I shall
+expose myself to the indignation of some men, and, possibly, to the
+contempt of others: but I feel that my opinion on this subject is not
+taken up on slight grounds; and I _must say my say_.
+
+The publication of Lord Byron's life and correspondence has contributed,
+a good deal, to divest him of that mystery, which hung about him, and in
+which he himself so much delighted; and has brought him down rather
+more to the level of ordinary mortals. They show him to us as a man
+possessed of splendid talents, of extensive and various attainments, and
+of the _seeds_ of many noble and generous qualities; but as a man
+actuated by ungovernable passions, and by an overweening opinion of his
+own superiority to all other mortals. _Self_, whether intellectual or
+sensual, seems to have been the idol that he worshipped. _His own_
+antient family, _his own_ talents, _his own_ attainments, _his own_
+whims, _his own_ passions, _his own_ excesses, seem all to have
+furnished food for his vanity, because they were _his own_.
+
+I acknowledge that, in all the circumstances of his _bringing up_, he
+was singularly unfortunate. His early destitution, the character and
+habits of his mother, the neglect of his noble relations, the venal
+praises of his parasites and dependents, all acted upon his character
+with pernicious influence.
+
+      "Untaught in youth his heart to tame,
+    His springs of life were poison'd."
+
+He was sensitively alive to all the beauties and the sublimities of
+external nature, and had a most penetrating insight into the complicated
+feelings, and the various workings of the human heart, with all its
+passions and affections; consequently, he abounds in passages of great
+beauty, and of singular strength and power. The gratification derived
+from the perusal of such passages, however, to a man at least who really
+believes himself to be an immortal and a responsible being, is but a
+poor compensation for the moral effects of many of his poems, his
+_later_ poems more especially[155:1]. They too often appear to breathe a
+spirit of engrossing selfishness; a spirit of captious and gloomy
+scepticism,--scepticism extending, not only to revelation, but to the
+primary truths of what is called natural religion, and even the most
+acknowledged bonds of moral obligation. The tendency of his writings is
+to make you dissatisfied with almost every thing, and every body in this
+world, and at the same time to unfit you for the world to come; indeed,
+to make you doubt, whether the idea of a world to come is not altogether
+a mere delusion.
+
+Lord Byron particularly excels in describing female loveliness, and the
+effect which such loveliness produces upon the ardent temperament of
+youth. In fact, the feeling within themselves so much that responds to
+these descriptions, is one great cause of the popularity of Lord Byron
+among young people. The sensations to which I allude, however, are of
+themselves but too importunate. It is most unwise to excite them,--to
+give them additional energy,--by the perusal of the high-wrought and
+glowing descriptions of this poet of the passions.
+
+I had heard much of Don Juan, and felt some curiosity to read it; but I
+was aware of the manner in which bold and flippant ribaldry sometimes
+takes hold of the mind, even when shocked at it. I knew well, that human
+nature has in itself but too much of passion and sensuality, without
+needing any additional stimulus. I was unwilling "to soil my mind" when
+I could avoid it. For my own sake, I was unwilling to see the most
+destructive vices treated as mere matter of jest, and the most awful
+truths of religion introduced in connexion with ludicrous images, and
+spoken of in the language of mockery. However much our judgment may
+disapprove of these things, yet the ludicrous passages and images are
+too apt to stick by us, even when we most wish to shake them off.
+
+A book was advertised, called "The Beauties of Don Juan, including those
+passages only which are calculated to extend the real fame of Lord
+Byron." The editor acknowledges that the poem itself, from the unpruned
+luxuriance of the author's powers, "has remained a sealed
+volume"--certainly it _ought_ to be a _sealed volume_--"to the fairest
+portion of the community." This _expurgate_ selection, however, though
+it contains many passages of great beauty, is a book which I should be
+sorry indeed to place in the hands of any young lady; and one against
+which I would _forewarn_ every young man, who is not prepared to run the
+risk of sacrificing, at the shrine of genius, Christian faith, and
+Christian soberness, and Christian purity.
+
+The description of the shipwreck had been spoken of as particularly
+fine. I read it. Not long since several accounts of actual shipwrecks
+and disasters at sea were published[159:1]. Some of these accounts, are
+among the most interesting and edifying narratives, that I am acquainted
+with. They abound in instances of heroic courage, of unshaken endurance,
+of a noble disregard of self, of the warmest benevolence, and of the
+most exalted piety. Don Juan seems to have taken a wayward pleasure in
+culling from these narratives the most distressing and painful facts,
+and then mixing them up in doggrel verse, with ludicrous images and
+ludicrous rhymes; the main _wit_ often consisting in some unexpected
+absurdity of sound or cadence.
+
+One of the most dreadful consequences of shipwreck is, when a remnant of
+the crew, cast off in an open boat, are reduced, by extremity of
+hunger, to determine by lot, which of them shall first be made the food
+of his companions. Even in such calamity, this perverse and bitter
+spirit contrives to find matter for merriment. He laughed in himself
+when he wrote the stanzas, and tries to make his readers laugh; though
+they must feel indignant with themselves if they give way to the
+impulse.
+
+I conclude my letter with two sayings of Bishop Horne's. "He who
+sacrifices religion to wit, like the people mentioned by AElian, worships
+a fly, and offers up an ox to it." Again; "Sir Peter Lely made it a
+rule, never to look at a bad picture, having found, by experience,
+that, whenever he did so, his pencil took a tint from it. Apply this to
+bad books and bad company."
+
+However brilliant the talents of a writer may be, yet, if a book has a
+tendency to produce a bad effect upon the moral habits of the mind, that
+book is a _bad_ book.
+
+    "When I behold a genius bright and base,
+    Of tow'ring talents, and terrestrial aims;
+    Methinks I see, as thrown from her high sphere,
+    The glorious fragments of a soul immortal,
+    With rubbish mixt, and glitt'ring in the dust."
+
+  I remain,
+  My dear Nephew,
+  Your affectionate Uncle.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[147:1] Rev. Hugh James Rose.
+
+[155:1] Childe Harold and the _four_ first tales (I am speaking only of
+the larger works) are most free from objection, at the same time that
+they are the most beautiful and interesting.
+
+[159:1] The Loss of the Kent, and Narratives of the Shipwrecks of the
+Lady Hobart packet, the Cabalva, &c. &c.
+
+
+
+
+PRAYERS
+
+
+_A Prayer before Study._
+
+(FROM DR. JOHNSON.)
+
+Almighty God, in whose hands are all the powers of man; who givest
+understanding and takest it away; who, as it seemeth good unto thee,
+enlightenest the thoughts of the simple, and darkenest the meditations
+of the wise, be present with me in my studies and inquiries.
+
+Grant, O Lord, that I may not lavish away the life which thou hast given
+me on useless trifles, nor waste it in vain searches after things which
+thou hast hidden from me.
+
+Enable me, by thy Holy Spirit, so to shun sloth and negligence, that
+every day may discharge part of the task which thou hast allotted me;
+and so further with thy help that labour which, without thy help, must
+be ineffectual, that I may obtain in all my undertakings such success as
+will most promote thy glory, and the salvation of my own soul, for the
+sake of Jesus Christ.
+
+
+_Prayer after Time unprofitably spent._
+
+(FROM DR. JOHNSON.)
+
+O Lord, in whose hands are life and death; by whose power I am
+sustained, and by whose mercy I am spared, look down upon me with pity.
+Forgive me, that I have this day neglected the duty which thou hast
+assigned to it, and suffered the hours, of which I must give account, to
+pass away without any endeavour to accomplish thy will, or to promote my
+own salvation. Make me to remember, O God, that every day is thy gift,
+and ought to be used according to thy command. Grant me, therefore, so
+to repent of my negligence, that I may obtain mercy from thee, and pass
+the time which thou shalt yet allow me in diligent performance of thy
+commands, through Jesus Christ. _Amen._
+
+
+_Prayer for Temperance._
+
+(FROM BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR.)
+
+O Almighty God and gracious Father of men and angels, who openest thy
+hand and fillest all things living with plenty; and hast provided for
+thy servant sufficient to satisfy all my needs: teach me to use thy
+creatures soberly and temperately, that I may not with loads of meat and
+drink make the temptations of my enemy to prevail upon me, or my spirit
+unapt for the performance of my duty, or my body healthless, or my
+affections sensual and unholy. O my God, never suffer that the blessings
+which thou givest me may minister either to sin or sickness, but to
+health, and holiness, and thanksgiving; that in the strength of thy
+provision I may cheerfully, and actively, and diligently serve thee;
+that I may worthily feast at thy table here, and be accounted worthy,
+through thy grace, to be admitted to thy table hereafter, through Jesus
+Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer. _Amen._
+
+
+_Prayer for the right government of the tongue._
+
+O God, watch over me this day for good; and grant that I may so keep
+the door of my mouth that I may not speak unadvisedly with my lips.
+Preserve me from offending with my tongue either against charity or
+purity. Let me not be guilty of foolish and immodest talking and
+jesting, of evil-speaking or censoriousness, or of any other of the many
+sins of the tongue. Grant that all my conversation may be such as
+becometh one who professes to be the servant and disciple of thy beloved
+Son, in whose name I beseech thee to hear my prayers.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Advice to a Young Man upon First Going
+to Oxford, by Edward Berens
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