A FATHER'S MISGIVINGS CONCERNING HIS SON'S DESTINATION. PETER
HOPKINS'S GENEROSITY. DANIEL IS SENT ABROAD TO GRADUATE IN MEDICINE.
Heaven is the magazine wherein He puts
Both good and evil; Prayer's the key that shuts
And opens this great treasure: 'tis a key
Whose wards are Faith and Hope and Charity.
Wouldst thou present a judgment due to sin?
Turn but the key and thou may'st lock it in.
Or wouldst thou have a blessing fall upon thee?
Open the door, and it will shower on thee!
QUARLES.
The elder Daniel saw in the marked improvement of his son at every
yearly visit more and more cause to be satisfied with himself for
having given him such a destination, and to thank Providence that the
youth was placed with a master whose kindness and religious care of
him might truly be called fatherly. There was but one consideration
which sometimes interfered with that satisfaction, and brought with it
a sense of uneasiness. The Doves from time immemorial had belonged to
the soil as fixedly as the soil had belonged to them. Generation after
generation they had moved in the same contracted sphere, their wants
and wishes being circumscribed alike within their own few hereditary
acres. Pride, under whatever form it may shew itself, is of the Devil;
and though Family Pride may not be its most odious manifestation, even
that child bears a sufficiently ugly likeness of its father. But
Family Feeling is a very different thing, and may exist as strongly in
humble as in high life. Naboth was as much attached to the vineyard,
the inheritance of his fathers, as Ahab could be to the throne which
had been the prize, and the reward, or punishment, of his father
Omri's ambition.
This feeling sometimes induced a doubt in Daniel whether affection for
his son had not made him overlook his duty to his forefathers;—whether
the fixtures of the land are not happier and less in the way of evil
than the moveables;—whether he had done right in removing the lad from
that station of life in which he was born, in which it had pleased God
to place him; divorcing him as it were from his paternal soil, and
cutting off the entail of that sure independence, that safe
contentment, which his ancestors had obtained and preserved for him,
and transmitted to his care to be in like manner by him preserved and
handed down. The latent poetry which there was in the old man's heart
made him sometimes feel as if the fields and the brook, and the hearth
and the graves reproached him for having done this! But then he took
shelter in the reflection that he had consulted the boy's true
welfare, by giving him opportunities of storing and enlarging his
mind; that he had placed him in the way of intellectual advancement,
where he might improve the talents which were committed to his charge,
both for his own benefit and for that of his fellow-creatures. Certain
he was that whether he had acted wisely or not, he had meant well. He
was conscious that his determination had not been made without much
and anxious deliberation, nor without much and earnest prayer;
hitherto, he saw, that the blessing which he prayed for had followed
it, and he endeavoured to make his heart rest in thankful and pious
hope that that blessing would be continued. “Wouldst thou know,” says
Quarles, “the lawfulness of the action which thou desirest to
undertake, let thy devotion recommend it to divine blessing. If it be
lawful thou shalt perceive thy heart encouraged by thy prayer; if
unlawful thou shalt find thy prayer discouraged by thy heart. That
action is not warrantable which either blushes to beg a blessing, or,
having succeeded, dares not present a thanksgiving.” Daniel might
safely put his conduct to this test; and to this test in fact his own
healthy and uncorrupted sense of religion led him, though probably he
had never read these golden words of Quarles the Emblemist.
It was therefore with no ordinary delight that our good Daniel
received a letter from his son, asking permission to go to Leyden, in
conformity with his Master's wishes, and there prosecute his studies
long enough to graduate as a Doctor in medicine. Mr. Hopkins, he said,
would generously take upon himself the whole expence, having adopted
him as his successor, and almost as a son; for as such he was treated
in all respects, both by him and by his mistress, who was one of the
best of women. And indeed it appeared that Mr. Hopkins had long
entertained this intention, by the care which he had taken to make him
keep up and improve the knowledge of Latin which he had acquired under
Mr. Guy.
The father's consent as might be supposed was thankfully given; and
accordingly Daniel Dove in the twenty-third year of his age embarked
from Kingston upon Hull for Rotterdam, well provided by the care and
kindness of his benevolent master with letters of introduction and of
credit; and still better provided with those religious principles
which though they cannot ensure prosperity in this world, ensure to us
things of infinitely greater moment,—good conduct, peace of mind, and
the everlasting reward of the righteous.