He smiled, and made me this answer, which I have never forgotten: "Why,
Charlotte, if the government ever gives power to the Papists again, as
they talk of doing, you may probably live to be a martyr."

I remember the stern pleasure that this reply afforded me; of spiritual
knowledge not the least glimmer had ever reached me in any form, yet I
knew the Bible most intimately, and loved it with all my heart as the
most sacred, the most beautiful of earthly things. Already had its
sublimity caught my adoration; and when listening to the lofty language
of Isaiah, as read from his stall in the cathedral by my father in
Advent, and the early Sundays of the year, while his magnificent voice
sent the prophetic denunciations pealing through those vaulted aisles, I
had received into my mind, and I think into my heart, that scorn of
idolatry which breathes so thrillingly in his inspired page. This I
know, that at six years old the foundation of a truly scriptural protest
was laid in my character; and to this hour it is my prayer that whenever
the Lord calls me hence, he may find his servant not only watching but
working against the diabolical iniquity that filled the Lollard's pit
with the ashes of his saints.

And now upon that all-important topic the Bible I would remark, that
among the most invaluable blessings of my life I remember the judicious
conduct of my parents in regard to it. We generally find that precious
volume made a book of tasks; sometimes even a book of penalties: the
consequence of so doing cannot but be evil. With us it was emphatically
a reward book. That identical book is now before me, in its rich red
cover, elegantly emblazoned with the royal arms; for it is the very
Bible that was placed before queen Charlotte at her coronation in 1761;
and which, becoming the perquisite of a prebendary of Westminster, was
by his wife presented to my mother, to whom she stood sponser. This