SECTION X. 83 "should for ever discourage any further solicitations. This gave him the character of a man of resolute virtue, even among the rakes of the time, nor was he ever esteemed the less on this ac- count. At first indeed he thought it a happy victory which be had gotten over himself, when he could defy the shame of the world, and resolve to be a Christian in the face of vice and infidelity : he found the shortest way to conquer this foolish shame, was to renounce it at once : then it was easy to practice singularity amidst a profane multitude. And when he began to get courage enough to profess resolute piety without a blush, in file midst of such company as this, Agathus and Eraste then permitted their son to travel abroad, and to see more of the world, under the protection of their daily prayers. His first tour was through the neighbouring counties of England ; he afterward enlarged the' circuit of his travels, till he had visited foreign nations, and learn- ed the value of his own. In short, the restraints of his younger years were tempered with so much liberty, and managed with such prudence and ten- derness, and these bonds of discipline were so gradually loosen- ed, as fast as he grew wise enough to govern himself, that Eugenio always carried about with him an inward conviction of the great love and wisdom of his parents and his tutor. The humours of the child now and then felt some reluctance against the pious discipline of his elders ; but now he is arrived at man- hood, there is nothing that he looks back upon with greater satis- faction than the steps of their conduct and the instances of his own submission. He often recounts these things with plea- sure, as some of the chief favours of heaven, whereby he was guarded through all the dangers and follies of youth and child- hood, and effectually kept, through divine grace operating by these happy means, from a thousand sorrows, and perhaps from everlasting ruin. Though he has been released tome years from the strict- ness of paternal government, yet he still makes his parents his chosen friends : and though they cease to practise authority upon him and absolute command, yet he pays the utmost deference to their counsels, and to the first notice of their inclinations. You shall never find him resisting and debating against their desires and propensities in little common things of life, which are in- different in themselves ; he thinks it carries in it too much con- tempt of those whom God and nature requires him to honour. In those instances of practice which they utterly forbid in their family, he bears so tender a regard to their peace, that he will scarcely ever allow himself in them, even when lie ça mot see sufficient reason to pronounce them unlawful. Nor dues he pay this regard to his parents alone, but denies himself in some gratifications which he esteems innocent, out of regard to what
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