It became now more and more imperative upon the young gentleman that he should seriously set himself to repair his broken fortunes, and his various meditations on the plans which suggested themselves for that purpose very naturally prevented him from sleeping. His habits had not much accustomed him to that application which business might require, and his recent patrician contempt of study had put him into possession of so large a stock of ignorance as to be rather in the way of his promotion. It is not indeed much to be wondered at that, considering how widely and deeply education has lately been diffused, the higher sort of people should now and then court the singularity of not knowing, and preserve their separation from the inferior orders by an ignorance of that which every body knows; for it is very clear that whatever becomes universal, must of necessity cease to be fashionable: therefore the education bestowed upon the multitude must compel the higher ranks in their own defence to cultivate ignorance, unless they would give themselves the trouble of toiling more laboriously in pursuit of knowledge than the lower orders. That is not very likely. CHAPTER XVII. “Good shepherd, tell this youth, what ’tis to love.” SHAKSPEARE. It is now necessary for us to revert to old Mr. Martindale and his new pets. So delighted was he with the general character of the minds of this family, that he was reluctant to make any arrangement which should remove them from continual intercourse with himself. Very soon did they become essential to him; for they seemed to open his mind to a new consciousness of being. The discovery of their existence was the means of removing a burden from his soul; and not only was there a negative satisfaction derived from having thus providentially met with them, but the very lively and unexpected interest which he took in their being and well being, gave to his own existence a positive satisfaction, and a feeling hitherto unknown; so that in the intervals of reflection and thought, he was under a frequent necessity of saying to himself, “But I must not forget Philip.”