there to-morrow. At last, his mother being dead and himself the head of the family, he settled down in Moscow as an assessor in the law-courts, where he did not, however, abandon his profligate ways all at once, but continued for a while to live as carelessly as before. Not long afterwards it was arranged that he should marry the daughter of a wealthy man, Missha by name.
4. I was extraordinary affected by this narration. Who would have thought that this young student, so obedient to the Faith, and so desirous of good, would ever have proved a rebel and an impostor? I was surprised myself at the elevated purity of the imaginations of his youth, I could but admire the strength and fervour of his resolutions. And yet, a white cord quickly becomes defiled, and a stiff piece of steel is more easily snapped than a piece of more pliant metal. When the Transient World comes over a man, with its waves of Defilement, the white thread of Purity is soon defiled, and the unbending steel of Resolution is snapped in a moment. Alas! when the touch of Defilement
