Page:Modern literature (1804 Volume 1).djvu/135

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delight he should feel on being the author of such speeches as were delivered by that celebrated orator. His father would answer, "You may, if you have merit enough. There are some eminent men in parliament, who raised themselves from a situation no higher than yours." Topics of this sort sometimes led to considerations respecting the future profession of our hero, especially when he approached the age of seventeen, and acquired a degree of classical literature, as well as other knowledge, that rendered him fit for being sent to an university. His grandfather reviewing the happiness which he himself had enjoyed in a sequestered life, and in the vigour of his own constitution hoping for several years longer life, wished to secure the reversion of his living to his grandson. The doctor, who by long residence at college chiefly regarded aca-