h other. The want of experience, of advice, and of
occupation, soon betrayed me into some improprieties of conduct,
ill-chosen company, late hours, and inconsiderate expense. My growing
debts might be secret; but my frequent absence was visible and
scandalous: and a tour to Bath, a visit into Buckingham-shire, and
four excursions to London in the same winter, were costly and dangerous
frolics. They were, indeed, without a meaning, as without an excuse. The
irksomeness of a cloistered life repeatedly tempted me to wander; but my
chief pleasure was that of travelling; and I was too young and bashful
to enjoy, like a Manly Oxonian in Town, the pleasures of London. In all
these excursions I eloped from Oxford; I returned to college; in a few
days I eloped again, as if I had been an independent stranger in a hired
lodging, without once hearing the voice of admonition, without once
feeling the hand of control. Yet my time was lost, my expenses were
multiplied, my behaviour abroad was unknown; folly as well as vice
should have awakened the attention of my superiors, and my tender
years would have justified a more than ordinary degree of restraint and
discipline.

It might at least be expected, that an ecclesiastical school should
inculcate the orthodox principles of religion. But our venerable
mother had contrived to unite the opposite extremes of bigotry and
indifference: an heretic, or unbeliever, was a monster in her eyes;
but she was always, or often, or sometimes, remiss in the spiritual
education of her own children. According to the statutes of the
university, every student, before he is matriculated, must subscribe his
assent to the thirty-nine articles of the church of England, which
are signed by more than read, and read by more than believe them. My
insufficient age excused me, however, from the immediate performance of
this legal ceremony; and the vice-chancellor directed me to return, as
soon as I should have accomplished my fifteenth year; recommending me,
in the mean while, to the instruction of my college. My college forgot
to instruct: I forgot to return, and was myself forgotten by the first
magistrate of the university. Without a single lecture, either public
or private, either christian or protestant, without any academical
subscription, without any episcopal confirmation, I was left by the dim
light of my catechism to grope my way to the chapel and communion-table,
where I was admitted, without a question,