him from the corner of one eye.--'I am sure,' resumed he,
'if you loved me as well as I do you, you would like to be married to
me, for then we should be always together.'--He was going on with
something farther in this innocent courtship, when some one or other
of the family, coming into the room, broke it off; and whether it was
resumed afterwards, or not, I cannot pretend to determine, nor whether
he had opportunity to take any particular leave of her before his
departure, which happened, as his father had threatened, the
succeeding day.

CHAP. IV.

Shews, that till we arrive at a certain age, the impressions made on
us are easily erased; and also that when those which bear the name
of love are once rooted in the mind, there are no lengths to which
we may not be transported by that passion, if great care is not
taken to prevent its getting the ascendant over reason.

The change of scene did not make any change in the sentiments of our
young lover: Delia was always in his head, and none of the diversions
he took with his companions could banish her from his thoughts; yet
did she not so wholly engross his attention, as to render him remiss
in his studies; his ambition, as I said before, would not suffer him
to neglect the means of acquiring praise, and nothing was so
insupportable to him as to find at any time another boy had merited a
greater share of it: by which we may perceive that this very passion,
unruly as it is, and in spite of the mischiefs it sometimes occasions,
is also bestowed upon us for our emolument; and when properly
directed, is the greatest excitement to all that is noble and
generous, Natura seldom had the mortification of seeing any of the
same standing with himself placed above him; and whenever such an
accident happened, he was sure to retrieve it by an extraordinary
assiduity.

But to shew that love and business are not wholly incompatible, his
attachment to Delia did not take him off his learning, nor did his
application to learning make him forgetful of Delia. He frequently
thought of her, wished to see her, and longed for the next
breaking-up, that he might re-enjoy that satisfaction, as he knew she
intended to stay the whole winter at his father's; but now arrived the
time to prove the inconstancy of human nature: he became acquainted
with some other little misses, and by degrees found charms in them,
which made those he had observed in Delia appear less admirable in