o, the more he had an opportunity of hearing and seeing, the
greater cause he had to admire and revere the Roman Catholic system, and
to be dissatisfied with his own. Carlton, after carefully considering
the case, advised him to go in for his examination. He acted thus, on
the one hand, as vividly feeling the changes which take place in the
minds of young men, and the difficulty of Reding foretelling his own
state of opinions two years to come; and, on the other, from the
reasonable anticipation that a contrary advice would have been the very
way to ripen his present doubts on the untenableness of Anglicanism into
conviction.

Accordingly, his examination came off in due time; the schools were
full, he did well, and his class was considered to be secure. Sheffield
followed soon after, and did brilliantly. The list came out; Sheffield
was in the first class, Charles in the second. There is always of
necessity a good deal of accident in these matters; but in the present
case reasons enough could be given to account for the unequal success of
the two friends. Charles had lost some time by his father's death, and
family matters consequent upon it; and his virtual rustication for the
last six months had been a considerable disadvantage to him. Moreover,
though he had been a careful, persevering reader, he certainly had not
run the race for honours with the same devotion as Sheffield; nor had
his religious difficulties, particularly his late indecision about
presenting himself at all, been without their serious influence upon his
attention and his energy. As success had not been the first desire of
his soul, so failure was not his greatest misery. He would have much
preferred success; but in a day or two he found he could well endure the
want of it.

Now came the question about his degree, which could not be taken without
subscription to the Articles. Another consultation followed with
Carlton. There was no need of his becoming a B.A. at the moment; nothing
would be gained by it; better that he should postpone the step. He had
but to go down and say nothing about it; no one would be the wiser; and
if, at the end of six months, as Carlton sanguinely anticipated, he
found himself in a more comfortable frame of mind, then let him come up,
and set all right.

What was he to do with himself at the moment? There was little
difficulty here either, what to propose. He had better be reading with
some clergyman in the country; thus