had fallen under his cultivation; instead of being reformed, he
seemed rather hardened and confirmed in his vicious inclinations,
and was dead to all sense of fear as well as shame.

His mother was extremely mortified at these symptoms of stupidity,
which she considered as an inheritance derived from the spirit of
his father, and consequently insurmountable by all the efforts of
human care. But the commodore rejoiced over the ruggedness of his
nature, and was particularly pleased when, upon inquiry, he found
that Perry had beaten all the boys in the school; a circumstance
from which he prognosticated everything that was fair and fortunate
in his future fate: observing, that at his age he himself was just
such another. The boy, who was now turned of six, having profited
so little under the birch of his unsparing governor, Mrs. Pickle
was counselled to send him to a boarding-school not far from London,
which was kept by a certain person very eminent for his successful
method of education. This advice she the more readily embraced,
because at that time she found herself pretty far gone with another
child that she hoped would console her for the disappointment she
had met with in the unpromising talents of Perry, or at any rate
divide her concern, so as to enable her to endure the absence of
either.





CHAPTER XII.