This story was given by “an old member of society,” on what he calls “the most authentic authority,” for the purpose of showing that Wesley, even as a boy, was ambitious. Be it so. What then? Is ambition always, and under all circumstances, a thing to be denounced? Ambition is widely different from vanity, a paltry passion of petty minds; neither is it necessarily accompanied with the use of improper means to attain its object. Ambition is common to the human species. There are but few without it, and who are not desirous of distinguishing themselves in the circle in which they live. You see the passion in the aristocratic noble toiling after a distinction which he desires to win; and you equally see it in the poorest mechanic, who strives to surround himself with poor admirers, and who delights in the superiority which he enjoys over those who are, in some respects, beneath him. Besides, as a rule, a man’s ambition is always in correspondence with his other tastes, and faculties, and powers. Dr. Johnson wisely remarks, that “Providence seldom sends any into the world with an inclination to attempt great things, who have not abilities likewise to perform them;” and Addison, an equally thoughtful student of human nature, observes that “Men of the greatest abilities are most fired with ambition; and, on the contrary, mean and narrow minds are the least actuated by it.” To account for this may be difficult, but none will deny its truth. Perhaps the difference may be occasioned by a man’s consciousness of his own capacities making him despair of attaining positions which others reach; or perhaps, which is more likely still, Providence, in the very framing of his mind, has freed him from a passion, which would be useless to the world, and a torment to himself. On such grounds, then, we are quite prepared to argue that, even allowing the above anonymous story to be strictly true, and allowing also that it proves that Wesley as a boy was animated with ambition, there is nothing in it which, for a moment, detracts from Wesley’s honour and honest fame. We wish that this were the only thing to be alleged against him during his Charterhouse career. Unfortunately there is another fact far more serious; for Wesley, while at this seat of learning, lost the religion which had marked his character from the days of infancy. He writes concerning this period of his history: “Outward restraints being removed, I was much more negligent than before, even of outward duties, and almost continually guilty of outward sins, which I knew to be such, though they were not scandalous in the eye of the world. However, I still read the Scriptures, and said my prayers morning and evening. And what I now hoped to be saved by was,—1. Not being so bad as other people. 2. Having still a kindness for religion. And, 3. Reading the Bible, going to church, and saying my prayers.”[14]