ut did little in Hebrew, Greek,
and the Mathematics. I lived in the house of the director, and got,
through my conduct, highly into his favour, so much so, that I was held up
by him in the first class as an example to the rest, and he used to take
me regularly with him in his walks, to converse with me in Latin. I used
now to rise regularly at four, winter and summer, and generally studied
all the day, with little exception, till ten at night.

But whilst I was thus outwardly gaining the esteem of my fellow-creatures,
I did not care in the least about God, but lived secretly in
much sin, in consequence of which I was taken ill, and for thirteen weeks
confined to my room. During my illness I had no real sorrow of heart, yet
being under certain natural impressions of religion, I read through
Klopstock's works without weariness. I cared nothing about the word of
God. I had about three hundred books of my own, but no Bible. I
practically set a far higher value upon the writings of Horace and Cicero,
Voltaire and Moliere, than upon the volume of inspiration. Now and then I
felt that I ought to become a different person, and I tried to amend my
conduct, particularly when I went to the Lord's supper, as I used to do
twice every year, with the other young men. The day previous to attending
that ordinance, I used to refrain from certain things; and on the day
itself I was serious, and also swore once or twice to God, with the emblem
of the broken body in my mouth, to become better, thinking that for the
oath's sake I should be induced to reform. But after one or two days were
over, all was forgotten, and I was as bad as before.

I had now grown so wicked, that I could habitually tell lies without
blushing. And further, to show how fearfully wicked I was, I will mention,
out of many others, only one great sin, of which I was guilty, before I
left this place. Through my dissipated life I had contracted debts, which
I had no means of discharging; for my father could allow me only about as
much as I needed for my regular maintenance. One day, after having
received a sum of money from him, and having purposely shown it to some of
my companions, I afterwards feigned that it was stolen, having myself by
force injured the lock of my trunk, and having also designedly forced open
my guitar case. I also feigned myself greatly frightened at what had
happened, ran into the director's room with my coat off, and told him that
my money was stol