e grammar, and the
language is so clear; it seems the very language for reasoning."

"True. Voltaire said justly, 'Whatever is obscure is not French,'"
observed Riccabocca.

"I wish I could say the same of English," muttered the Parson.

"But what is this?--Latin too?--Virgil?"

"Yes, sir. But I find I make little way there without a master. I fear I
must give it up," (and Leonard sighed.)

The two gentlemen exchanged looks and seated themselves. The young
peasant remained standing modestly, and in his air and mien there was
something that touched the heart while it pleased the eye. He was no
longer the timid boy who had sunk from the frown of Mr. Stirn, nor that
rude personation of simple physical strength, roused to undisciplined
bravery, which had received its downfall on the village-green of
Hazeldean. The power of thought was on his brow--somewhat unquiet still,
but mild and earnest. The features had attained that refinement which is
often attributed to race, but comes, in truth, from elegance of idea,
whether caught from our parents or learned from books. In his rich brown
hair, thrown carelessly from his temples, and curling almost to the
shoulders--in his large blue eye, which was deepened to the hue of the
violet by the long dark lash--in that firmness of lip, which comes from
the grapple with difficulties, there was considerable beauty, but no
longer the beauty of the mere peasant. And yet there was still about the
whole countenance that expression of goodness and purity which the
painter would give to his ideal of the peasant lover--such as Tasso
would have placed in the _Aminta_, or Fletcher have admitted to the side
of the Faithful Shepherdess.

"You must draw a chair here, and sit down between us, Leonard," said the
Parson.

"If any one," said Riccabocca, "has a right to sit, it is the one who
is to hear the sermon; and if any one ought to stand, it is the one who
is about to preach it."

"Don't be frightened, Leonard," said the Parson, graciously; "it is only
a criticism, not a sermon," and he pulled out Leonard's Prize Essay.

CHAPTER XIX.

_Parson._--"You take for your motto this aphorism[K]--'_Knowledge is
Power._'--BACON."

_Riccabocca._--"Bacon make such an aphorism! The last man in the world
to have said any thing so pert and so shallow."

_Leonard_ (astonished).--"Do you mean to say, sir, that that aphorism is
not in Lord Bacon! Why, I have seen it quoted as his in almost every
ne