Vanity, however, was the rock on which our chaplain split: he found himself, among the circle he frequented, the one-eyed king in the kingdom of the blind; and thought it a pity such talents should be lost in a profession where, in his view of the subject, bread and peace were all that were to be expected. The first intelligence I heard was, that Mr. H. on some pretence or other, often went to the neighbouring town of Schenectady now rising into consequence, and there openly renounced his profession, and took out a license as a practising lawyer. It is easy to conjecture how madame must have considered this wanton renunciation of the service of the altar for a more gainful pursuit, aggravated by simulation at least; for this seeming open and artless character took all the benefit of her hospitality, and continued to be her inmate the whole time that he was secretly carrying on a plan he knew she would reprobate. She, however, behaved with great dignity on the occasion; supposing, no doubt, that the obligations she had conferred upon him, deprived her of a right to reproach or reflect upon him. She was never after heard to mention his name; and when others did, always shifted the conversation. All these revolutions in manners and opinions helped to endear me to aunt, as a pupil of her own school; while my tenacious memory enabled me to entertain her with the wealth of others’ minds, rendered more amusing by the simplicity of my childish comments. Had I been capable of flattery, or rather, had I been so deficient in natural delicacy, as to say what I really thought of this exalted character, the awe with which I regarded her would have deterred me from such presumption; but as I really loved and honoured her, as virtue personified, and found my chief happiness in her society and conversation, she could not but be aware of this silent adulation, and she became indeed more and more desirous of having me with her. To my father, however, I was now become, in some degree, necessary, from causes somewhat similar. He, too, was sick of the reigning conversation; and being nervous and rather inclined to melancholy, begun to see things in the darkest light, and made the most of a rheumatism, in itself bad enough, to have a pretext for indulging the chagrin that preyed upon his mind, and avoiding his Connecticut persecutors, who attacked him every where but in bed. A fit of chagrin was generally succeeded by a fit of home sickness, and that by a paroxysm of devotion exalted to enthusiasm; during which all worldly concerns were to give way to those of futurity. Thus melancholy and thus devout I found my father; whose pure and upright spirit was corroded with the tricks and chicanery he was forced to observe in his new associates, with whom his singular probity and simplicity of character rendered him very unfit to contend. My mother, active, cheerful, and constantly occupied with her domestic affairs, sought pleasure no where,