headed fellows learning to equivocate at their mother's knee, but pray
remember that the wisest master of ethics himself, in his theory of
hexeis apodeiktikai, similarly raised virtues, such as telling the
truth, to the level of regular accomplishments, and, before you judge
poor George harshly in his entanglements of lying, think of the
cruelly unwise education he had undergone.

However much we may deplore this exaggerated tyranny, by reason of its
evil effect upon his moral nature, we cannot but feel glad that it
existed, to afford a piquant contrast to the life awaiting him. Had he
passed through the callow dissipations of Eton and Oxford, like other
young men of his age, he would assuredly have lacked much of that
splendid, pent vigour with which he rushed headlong into London life.
He was so young and so handsome and so strong, that can we wonder if
all the women fell at his feet? `The graces of his person,' says one
whom he honoured by an intrigue, `the irresistible sweetness of his
smile, the tenderness of his melodious, yet manly voice, will be
remembered by me till every vision of this changing scene are
forgotten. The polished and fascinating ingenuousness of his manners
contributed not a little to enliven our promenade. He sang with
exquisite taste, and the tones of his voice, breaking on the silence
of the night, have often appeared to my entranced senses like more
than mortal melody.' But besides his graces of person, he had a most
delightful wit, he was a scholar who could bandy quotations with Fox
or Sheridan, and, like the young men of to-day, he knew all about Art.
He spoke French, Italian, and German perfectly. Crossdill had taught
him the violoncello. At first, as was right for one of his age, he
cared more for the pleasures of the table and of the ring, for cards
and love. He was wont to go down to Ranelagh surrounded by a retinue
of bruisers--rapscallions, such as used to follow Clodius through the