of implicit obedience, which was the soul of our nurture in those primitive times. As I recited standing, a sensation of weariness occasionally stole over my limbs, so that I always felt relief at the interrogation, "What is effectual calling?" which I fancied was somewhere near the middle, or at least a kind of vantage-ground, from whence, as from Pisgah, the close of the pilgrimage might be contemplated, as "those fields of lign-aloes which the Lord had planted." I have heard some excellent old people say, that the foundation of their religion was the same long catechism, and that when disease induced wakefulness, a silent repetition of it to themselves was a decided comfort. I confess my inability to lay claim to either of these results; and having never been so fortunate as to derive from it either improvement in piety or consolation in pain, have abstained from requiring it of any who have come under my care for education.
Truly happy was my childhood, fed on dews of love, yet guarded from the evils of indulgence by habits of industry, order, and obedience, which my parents wisely inculcated. Their wishes I never gainsaid; indeed, the idea of having any will opposed to theirs, or separate from it, never entered my imagination. Perfect content, and acquiescence with my lot, were the earliest gifts of life. Yet the cream of all my happiness was a loving intercourse with venerable age.
I have already mentioned that under the pleasant
