hat he should be expelled from the university, for having
presumed to write and deliver such a licentious and scurrilous libel.
Peregrine answered, with great resolution, that when the provocation
he had received should be known, he was persuaded that he should be
acquitted by the opinion of all impartial people; and that he was ready
to submit the whole to the decision of the master.

This arbitration he proposed, because he knew the master and Jumble were
at variance; and, for that reason, the tutor durst not venture to put
the cause on such an issue. Nay, when this reference was mentioned,
Jumble, who was naturally jealous, suspected that Peregrine had a
promise of protection before he undertook to commit such an outrageous
insult; and this notion had such an effect upon him, that he decided
to devour his vexation, and wait for a more proper opportunity of
gratifying his hate. Meanwhile, copies of the ballad were distributed
among the students, who sang it under the very nose of Mr. Jumble, to
the tune of "A Cobbler there was" etc.; and the triumph of our hero
was complete. Neither was his whole time devoted to the riotous
extravagancies of youth. He enjoyed many lucid intervals, during which
he contracted a more intimate acquaintance with the classics, applied
himself to the reading of history, improved his taste for painting and
music, in which he made some progress; and, above all things, cultivated
the study of natural philosophy. It was generally after a course of
close attention to some of these arts and sciences, that his disposition
broke out into those irregularities and wild sallies of a luxuriant
imagination, for which he became so remarkable; and he was perhaps the
only young man in Oxford who, at the same time, maintained an intimate
and friendly intercourse with the most unthinking, as well as the most
sedate students at the university.

It is not to be supposed that a young man of Peregrine's vanity,
inexperience, and profusion, could suit his expense to his allowance,
liberal as it was--for he was not one of those fortunate people who are
born economists, and knew not the art of withholding his purse when he
saw his companion in difficulty. Thus naturally generous and expensive,
he squandered away his money, and made a most splendid appearance upon
the receipt of his quarterly appointment; but long before the third
month was elapsed, his finances were consumed: and as he could not stoop
to ask an ext