Infinite are the consequences which follow from a single, and often
apparently a very insignificant circumstance. Paley himself narrowly
escaped being a baker; here was a decision upon which hung in one scale,
perhaps, the immortal interests of thousands, and, in the other, the
gratification of the taste of the good people of Giggleswick for hot
rolls. Cromwell was near being strangled in his cradle by a monkey; here
was this wretched ape wielding in his paws the destinies of nations.
Then, again, how different in their kind, as well as in their magnitude,
are these consequences from anything that might have been _à priori_
expected. Henry VIII. is smitten with the beauty of a girl of eighteen;
and ere long,
"The Reformation beams from Bullen's eyes."
Charles Wesley refuses to go with his wealthy namesake to Ireland, and
the inheritance, which would have been his, goes to build up the
fortunes of a Wellesley instead of a Wesley; and to this decision of a
schoolboy (as Mr. Southey observes) Methodism may owe its existence, and
England its military--and, we trust we may now add, its civil and
political--glory--_Quarterly Rev._
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