and nothing but the truth; for he himself had prophesied, from the
beginning, that the boy would turn out a credit to his family. But
by this time Mrs. Pickle was blessed with a daughter, whom she had
brought into the world about six months before the intelligence
arrived; so that her care and affection being otherwise engrossed,
the praise of Perry was the less greedily devoured. The abatement
of her fondness was an advantage to his education, which would
have been retarded, and perhaps ruined, by pernicious indulgence,
and preposterous interposition, had her love considered him as
an only child; whereas her concern being now diverted to another
object, that shared, at least, one-half of her affection, he was
left to the management of his preceptor, who tutored him according
to his own plan, without any let or interruption. Indeed all his
sagacity and circumspection were but barely sufficient to keep the
young gentleman in order; for now that he had won the palm of victory
from his rivals in point of scholarship, his ambition dilated, and
he was seized with the desire of subjecting the whole school by
the valour of his arm. Before he could bring his project to bear,
innumerable battles were fought with various success; every day a
bloody nose and complaint were presented against him, and his own
visage commonly bore some livid marks of obstinate contention.
At length, however, he accomplished his aim; his adversaries were
subdued, his prowess acknowledged, and he obtained the laurel in
war as well is in wit. Thus triumphant, he was intoxicated with
success: his pride rose in proportion to his power and, in spite
of all the endeavours of Jennings, who practised every method he
could invent for curbing his licentious conduct, without depressing
his spirit, he contracted a large proportion of insolence, which
series of misfortunes that happened to him in the sequel could
scarce effectually tame. Nevertheless there was a fund of good