r dinner they set off to find the wild-beast show; and, as
they will be at least a quarter of an hour reaching it, for the
pitch is in a part of the suburbs little known to gownsmen, the
opportunity may be seized of making a few remarks to the patient
reader, which impatient readers are begged to skip.

Our hero on his first appearance in public some years since, was
without his own consent at once patted on the back by the
good-natured critics, and enrolled for better or worse in the
brotherhood of muscular Christians, who at that time were
beginning to be recognised as an actual and lusty portion of
general British life. As his biographer, I am not about to take
exception to his enrolment; for, after considering the persons up
and down Her Majesty's dominions to whom the new nick-name has
been applied, the principles which they are supposed to hold, and
the sort of lives they are supposed to lead; I cannot see where
he could in these times have fallen upon a nobler brotherhood. I
am speaking of course under correction, and with only a slight
acquaintance with the faith of muscular Christianity, gathered
almost entirely from the witty expositions and comments of
persons of a somewhat dyspeptic habit, who are not amongst the
faithful themselves. Indeed, I am not aware that any authorized
articles of belief have been sanctioned or published by the sect,
Church, or whatever they may be. Moreover, at the age at which
our hero has arrived, and having regard to his character, I
should say that he has in all likelihood thought very little on
the subject of belief, and would scarcely be able to give any
formal account of his own, beyond that contained in the Church
Catechism, which I for one think may very well satisfy him for
the present. Nevertheless, he had suddenly been caught at the
gate of St. Ambrose's College, by one of the gentlemen who do the
classifying for the British public, and accosted with, "Sir, you
belong to a body whose creed it is to fear God, and walk 1000
miles in 1000 hours;" I believe he would have replied, "Do I,
sir? I'm very glad to hear it. They must be a very good set of
fellows. How many weeks' training, do they allow?"

But in the course of my inquiries on the subject of muscular
Christians, their works and ways, a fact has forced itself on my
attention, which, for the sake of ingenious youth, ought not to
be passed over. I find, then, that, side by side with these
muscular Christians, and ap