arms. Yet he carried
himself, in outward appearance, as meekly as the humblest Christian, and
took credit to himself accordingly. He seldom pressed his advantages to
the utter subjugation of the sighing dames, but deported himself with
commendable forbearance toward the weak and defenceless whom his
perfections had disarmed. He was as merciful as he was irresistible: as
considerate as he was beautiful.

"What a saint of a knight is the knight of Saint John!"

The personal advantages which he believed made him so dangerous to the
peace of woman, were counteracted, thus, by his saintly piety. For--as
it became him to be, both in the character of a man, and in that of a
descendant of the puritans--he was always habited in "the livery of
heaven." Some ill-natured and suspicious people, it is true, were
inclined to call his exemplary "walk" hypocritical, and to stigmatise
his pious "conversation" as _cant_. But the ungodly world has always
persecuted the righteous, and the schoolmaster was correct in
attributing their sneers to the rebuke which his example gave to their
wickedness, and to make "capital" out of the "persecution." And who
shall blame him--when in the weary intervals of a laborious and
thankless profession, fatigue repressed enthusiasm--if he sometimes eked
out the want of inspiration by a godly snuffle? True piety reduces even
the weapons of the scorner to the service of religion, and the citadel
of the Gloomy Kingdom is bombarded with the artillery of Satan! Thus,
the nose, which is so serviceable in the production of the devilish and
unchristian sneer, is elevated by a saintlike zeal, to the expression of
a devout whine: and this I believe to be the only satisfactory
explanation which has ever been given, of the connection, in so many
good men, between the _nasal_ and the _religious_!

But the schoolmaster usually possessed genuine religious feeling, as
well as a pious manner; and, excepting an occasional display of
hereditary, and almost unconscious, cunning, he lived "a righteous and
upright life."

The process of becoming a respectable and respected citizen was a very
short and simple one--and whether the schoolmaster designed to remain
only a lord of the ferrule, or casting the insignia of his office behind
him, to seek higher things, he was never slow in adopting it. Among his
scholars, there were generally half-a-dozen or more young
women--marriageable daughters of substantial men; and fr