 next chapter, and so leave the explanation of that and every thing else to what I may conceive the proper season for it.
I would nevertheless have that, as well as many other particulars in this chapter, carefully attended to. Gangrenes begin by a small spot, and the egg of a crocodile has as inoffensive an appearance as that of a goose.


Mr. STANDFAST no sooner sat down in Lord Hazard's family than, like a spy in an enemy's camp, he began to reconnoitre its situation, strength, and disposition; to examine whether the body was well united, whether there were any rotten members, whether centinels dared to sleep on their posts, whether the commanding officer was most loved or feared—In short, to use his own words—though I would not have the reader infer from thence that he was a cobler in his business—he had the length of every foot in the family.
Not however to be outdone in courtesy, there was not one among them that had not something to say in his favour. My Lord declared he was a man of strong intellects and sound erudition. He did not think him a saint, nor wish him to be one. Solid argument, for ought he could see, might as well be discussed over a glass as a lamp, and as to gaiety and carelessness, he dreaded nothing from them, for they could harbour no ill designs. He was a little

surprised at hearing from Standfast that he had been frequently in his life taken in, but it gave him an opportunity of exercising his sagacity by remarking that those who mix most with the world, know least of it:—as it was said of Lord ANSON, after he had been a prey to sharpers, that he had been over the world, but never in it. Upon the whole, he thought Mr. Standfast a fair, undesigning man, and both a proper tutor for his son, and companion for himself.
Lady Hazard was no less prepossessed in favour of the tutor. She looked upon him as an unaffected cheerful man, perfectly well bred; and, as she saw his being in the house gave her lord particular satisfaction, really felicitated herself upon this acquisition to the family.
The butler liked him; for though he could well distinguish the different qualities of the wine, yet he never made use of his knowledge to a poor servant's disadvantage. In short, there was not a person in the family whose good opinion he had not been anxious to procure, and one would have thought with more care and industry than belonged to such a trifle; for
