This was the period of his
fanatical admiration for Jeremy Bentham and Mill, who, you know,
are our near neighbors here, and whose houses we never pass without
John being inclined to salute them, I think, as the shrines of some
beneficent powers of renovation. And here comes the break in our
intercourse and in my knowledge of his mental and moral progress. I
went to Scotland, and was amazed, after I had been there some time,
to hear from my mother that John had not got his scholarship, and
had renounced his intention of going to the bar and determined to
study for the Church. I returned home, and found him much changed.
His high sense of the duties attending it makes me rejoice most
sincerely that he has chosen that career, which may not be the
surest path to worldly advancement, but if conscientiously followed
must lead, I should think, to the purest happiness this life can
offer. I think much of this change may be attributed to the example
and influence of some deservedly dear friends of his; probably
something to the sobering effect of the disappointment and
mortification of his failure at college, where such sanguine hopes
and expectations of his success had been entertained.
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