her card-parties glorify Him for that?"

The dean again made no reply, and Henry went on to other questions, till
his uncle had fully instructed him as to the nature and the form of
_prayer_; and now, putting into his hands a book, he pointed out to him a
few short prayers, which he wished him to address to Heaven in his
presence.

Whilst Henry bent his knees, as his uncle had directed, he trembled,
turned pale, and held, for a slight support, on the chair placed before
him.

His uncle went to him, and asked him "What was the matter."

"Oh!" cried Henry, "when I first came to your door with my poor father's
letter, I shook for fear you would not look upon me; and I cannot help
feeling even more now than I did then."

The dean embraced him with warmth--gave him confidence--and retired to
the other side of the study, to observe his whole demeanour on this new
occasion.

As he beheld his features varying between the passions of humble fear and
fervent hope, his face sometimes glowing with the rapture of
thanksgiving, and sometimes with the blushes of contrition, he thus
exclaimed apart:--

"This is the true education on which to found the principles of religion.
The favour conferred by Heaven in granting the freedom of petitions to
its throne, can never be conceived with proper force but by those whose
most tedious moments during their infancy were _not_ passed in prayer.
Unthinking governors of childhood! to insult the Deity with a form of
worship in which the mind has no share; nay, worse, has repugnance, and
by the thoughtless habits of youth, prevent, even in age, devotion."

Henry's attention was so firmly fixed that he forgot there was a
spectator of his fervour; nor did he hear young William enter the chamber
and even speak to his father.

At length closing his book and rising from his knees, he approached his
uncle and cousin, with a sedateness in his air, which gave the latter a
very false opinion of the state of his youthful companion's mind.

"So, Mr. Henry," cried William, "you have been obliged, at last, to say
your prayers."

The dean informed his son "that to Henry it was no punishment to pray."

"He is the strangest boy I ever knew!" said William, inadvertently.

"To be sure," said Henry, "I was frightened when I first knelt; but when
I came to the words, _Father_, _which art in Heaven_, they gave me
courage; for I know how merciful and kind a _father_ is, beyond any one
else."

The dean