The cause, indeed, is
not uncommon, as was confirmed by another great man, to whom the
archbishop confessed it. The old Lord Thomas Fairfax one day finding the
archbishop very melancholy, inquired the reason of his grace's
pensiveness: "My lord," said the archbishop, "I have great reason of
sorrow with respect of my sons; one of whom has wit and no grace,
another grace but no wit, and the third neither grace nor wit." "Your
case," replied Lord Fairfax, "is not singular. I am also sadly
disappointed in my sons: one I sent into the Netherlands to train him up
a soldier, and he makes a tolerable country justice, but a mere coward
at fighting; my next I sent to Cambridge, and he proves a good lawyer,
but a mere dunce at divinity; and my youngest I sent to the inns of
court, and he is good at divinity, but nobody at the law." The relater
of this anecdote adds, "This I have often heard from the descendant of
that honourable family, who yet seems to mince the matter, because so
immediately related." The eldest son was the Lord Ferdinando
Fairfax--and the gunsmith to Thomas Lord Fairfax, the son of this Lord
Ferdinando, heard the old Lord Thomas call aloud to his grandson, "Tom!
Tom! mind thou the battle! Thy father's a good man, but a mere coward!
All the good I expect is from thee!" It is evident that the old Lord
Thomas Fairfax was a military character, and in his earnest desire of
continuing a line of heroes, had preconcerted to make his eldest son a
military man, who we discover turned out to be admirably fitted for a
worshipful justice of the quorum. This is a lesson for the parent who
consults his own inclinations and not those of natural disposition. In
the present case the same lord, though disappointed, appears still to
have persisted in the same wish of having a great military character in
his family: having missed one in his elder son, and settled his other
sons in different avocations, the grandfather persevered, and fixed his
hopes, and bestowed his encouragements, on his grandson, Sir Thomas
Fairfax, who makes so distinguished a figure in the civil wars.

The difficulty of discerning the aptitude of a youth for any particular
destination in life will, perhaps, even for the most skilful parent, be
always hazardous. Many will be inclined, in despair of anything better,
to throw dice with fortune; or adopt the determination of the father who
settled his sons by a whimsical analogy which he appears to have formed
of