“‘My dear lad,’ said he, ‘you must _fend_ for yourself. I have engaged that you shall become apprentice to an engraver in Manchester, who is a distant relation of your mother’s, and, I am told, in a very thriving condition. Your mother and I have given you learning, and we hope, good principles; we had wished to have given you more, but GOD’s will be done.’ “A change now came over the whole course of my thoughts. It was like telling me that I was to pass my days in another world, so little notion had I of anything that was going on beyond the boundaries of my native mountains; and I speculated, and wondered, till my mind became confused and perplexed, and I was unable to attend to even the commonest concerns of life. I will hasten over this distressing period, for it is too painful to dwell on, even at this distance of time. I believe that age magnifies the anxieties that are far off, as much as it deadens the pain of those that are near. The recollection to me now, is more grievous than was the reality at the time. Robert Walker took leave of me with much sound advice, but with a cheerfulness that removed much of my horror—for that was what I felt—at leaving, probably for ever, my native hills. “‘My good lad,’ said he, ‘you are only about to do what thousands have done before you—leave these barren mountains for a scene of usefulness to which you are evidently called by your heavenly FATHER. Many of my flock have gone before you in the same path, and most of them, I thank GOD, have been highly successful in their labours. Some of the highest and richest merchants in Manchester drew their first breath in these humble valleys, and were taught at my village school. Having here been taught the lessons of frugality, industry, and attention to religious duties, they were thus trained for the after-toils of life, and have become an honour to their country and their Church. But as for you, I would rather see you good than rich. The one, with GOD’s grace, you can be; the other may depend on a thousand accidents. I have prepared a little present for you, which I trust you will always cherish as proof of my good will. The Bible I know you have, and its fitting companion and interpreter, the Prayer-book: here is ‘Nelson’s Companion to the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England,’ the best book, next to the Prayer-book, that the uninspired mind of man ever compiled; full of learning, full of piety, full of prayer. Know this book well, and you will be wiser than your teachers; for to understand and retain in one’s mind the contents of one such book as this, is better than to read whole libraries, and to have but a dim and misty recollection of them all; and here is another good book, which you will find a valuable companion to you in some of your silent and solitary hours—‘The Whole Duty of Man.’ Blessed be the memory of the pious lady who wrote it! And may the blessing of GOD rest for