d so rudely and so unskilfully.

Especially was he desirous of dissipating the fog of pomposity and
solemn pretence, which its writer had thrown around the personages
introduced into it, by showing, as in a specimen, that those who were
smitten with love of the Catholic Church, were nevertheless as able to
write common-sense prose as other men.

Under these circumstances "Loss and Gain" was given to the public.

_Feb. 21, 1874._

LOSS AND GAIN.

Part I.

CHAPTER I.

Charles Reding was the only son of a clergyman, who was in possession of
a valuable benefice in a midland county. His father intended him for
orders, and sent him at a proper age to a public school. He had long
revolved in his mind the respective advantages and disadvantages of
public and private education, and had decided in favour of the former.
"Seclusion," he said, "is no security for virtue. There is no telling
what is in a boy's heart: he may look as open and happy as usual, and be
as kind and attentive, when there is a great deal wrong going on within.
The heart is a secret with its Maker; no one on earth can hope to get at
it or to touch it. I have a cure of souls; what do I really know of my
parishioners? Nothing; their hearts are sealed books to me. And this
dear boy, he comes close to me; he throws his arms round me, but his
soul is as much out of my sight as if he were at the antipodes. I am
not accusing him of reserve, dear fellow: his very love and reverence
for me keep him in a sort of charmed solitude. I cannot expect to get at
the bottom of him.

'Each in his hidden sphere of bliss or woe,
Our hermit spirits dwell.'

It is our lot here below. No one on earth can know Charles's secret
thoughts. Did I guard him here at home ever so well, yet, in due time,
it would be found that a serpent had crept into the heart of his
innocence. Boys do not fully know what is good and what is evil; they do
wrong things at first almost innocently. Novelty hides vice from them;
there is no one to warn them or give them rules; and they become slaves
of sin, while they are learning what sin is. They go to the University,
and suddenly plunge into excesses, the greater in proportion to their
inexperience. And, besides all this, I am not equal to the task of
forming so active and inquisitive a mind as his. He already asks
questions which I know not how to answer. So he shall go to a public
school. There he will get discipline at lea