advised me to make up my mind to accompany him.

This unexpected proposal gave me pleasure and surprize, but the want
of money occurred to me as an insuperable objection. On this being
mentioned, Oho! said he, carelessly, that objection is easily removed, I
will bear all expenses of your passage myself.

The extraordinary beneficence of this act as well as the air of
uncautiousness attending it, made me doubt the sincerity of his offer,
and when new declarations removed this doubt, I could not forbear
expressing at once my sense of his generosity and of my own
unworthiness.

He replied that generosity had been expunged from his catalogue as
having no meaning or a vicious one. It was the scope of his exertions
to be just. This was the sum of human duty, and he that fell short, ran
beside, or outstripped justice was a criminal. What he gave me was my
due or not my due. If it were my due, I might reasonably demand it from
him and it was wicked to withhold it. Merit on one side or gratitude on
the other, were contradictory and unintelligible.

If I were fully convinced that this benefit was not my due and yet
received it, he should hold me in contempt. The rectitude of my
principles and conduct would be the measure of his approbation, and no
benefit should he ever bestow which the receiver was not entitled to
claim, and which it would not be criminal in him to refuse.

These principles were not new from the mouth of Ludloe, but they had,
hitherto, been regarded as the fruits of a venturous speculation in my
mind. I had never traced them into their practical consequences, and if
his conduct on this occasion had not squared with his maxims, I should
not have imputed to him inconsistency. I did not ponder on these
reasonings at this time: objects of immediate importance engrossed my
thoughts.

One obstacle to this measure was removed. When my voyage was performed
how should I subsist in my new abode? I concealed not my perplexity and
he commented on it in his usual manner. How did I mean to subsist, he
asked, in my own country? The means of living would be, at least, as
much within my reach there as here. As to the pressure of immediate and
absolute want, he believed I should be exposed to little hazard.
With talents such as mine, I must be hunted by a destiny peculiarly
malignant, if I could not provide myself with necessaries wherever my
lot were cast.

He would make allowances, however, for my diffidence and self-di