One of the boys who attended the same school with me, and whose father's
residence was very near my father's, was, even at that early period,
both vulgar and profane in his talk. He seemed destitute of all sense
and propriety, caring nothing for what was due from him to others, and
equally regardless of the good-will of his teacher and of his
companions. When I returned to the place, after a few years' absence,
and inquired for him, I was told that he was growing up, or rather had
grown up, in habits of vice, which seemed likely to render him an outlaw
from all decent society: that even then he had no associates except from
the very dregs of the community. In my visits to my native place ever
since, I have kept my eye upon him, as a sad illustration of the
progress of sin. He has been for many years--I cannot say an absolute
sot--but yet an intemperate drinker. He has always been shockingly
profane; not only using the profane expressions that are commonly heard
in the haunts of wickedness, but actually putting his invention to the
rack to originate expressions more revolting, if possible, than anything
to be found in the acknowledged vocabulary of blasphemy. He has been
through life an avowed infidel--not merely a deist, but a professed
atheist,--laughing at the idea both of a God and a hereafter; though his
skepticism, instead of being the result of inquiry or reflection, or
being in any way connected with it, is evidently the product of
unrestrained vicious indulgence.
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