Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children


Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to?by Edward Berens

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to
Oxford, by Edward Berens This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford In Ten Letters, From an Uncle to His Nephew
Author: Edward Berens
Release Date: March 29, 2007 [EBook #20932]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN ***

Produced by Irma ?pehar, Louise Pryor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)

{Transcriber's note:
Greek has been transliterated and is surrounded with ++: +makrothymei+}

LETTERS, &c.

ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN
UPON FIRST GOING TO OXFORD,
IN TEN LETTERS,
FROM AN UNCLE TO HIS NEPHEW.
* * * * *
BY THE REV. EDWARD BERENS, M.A. LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE.
* * * * *
LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.
* * * * *
1832.

LONDON: GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, St. John's Square.

I have long thought that a book was wanted, of the nature of that which I have here attempted. How far I have succeeded in the attempt, the public will determine.
I have had,--have at present,--and (if I live,) expect to have hereafter,--several nephews at Oxford; all having to make their own way in the world, and all, consequently, having abundant reason for being economical, both of their time and of their money, during their residence at the University. These Letters were not addressed to any one of them in particular, but are intended, like some official documents, "for all whom they may concern." Perhaps I had more especially in view, those of them who are destined for my own profession.
E. B.

CONTENTS.
LETTER. PAGE.
I. Sense of Religion 1
II. Choice of Friends 13
III. Conversation 27
IV. Against yielding to the Influence of Numbers 45
V. Improvement of Time 55
VI. Punctuality 72
VII. Amusements 85
VIII. Expenses, and running into Debt 99
IX. Temperance 114
X. English Reading 137

LETTER I.
SENSE OF RELIGION.
MY DEAR NEPHEW,
It gives me sincere pleasure to hear that you have actually become a member of the University of Oxford. This satisfaction, perhaps, may in some degree be attributed to the pleasing recollection of my own Oxford life, but certainly it arises principally from anticipation of the substantial benefits which you, I trust, will derive from your connexion with that seat of learning. At the same time, I will own that my satisfaction is not entirely unmixed with something like apprehension. An University education has many and great advantages, but it also is attended with many temptations;--temptations to which too many young men have yielded, sometimes to the great injury of their character, and the utter ruin of all their future prospects.
In fact, you are now entering upon the most important period--the turning point--of your whole life. You have become, in a great measure, your own master. For though you will be under a certain degree of discipline and surveillance, yet in a multiplicity of cases you will have to act for yourself--to take your own line. You will have to contend against the allurements of pleasure and dissipation, and you have just reached the age when the natural passions and appetites become most impatient of restraint. At the same time, you will be exposed to the influence both of the example and of the solicitations of lively young men, who will try to carry you along with them in their career of thoughtlessness and folly, and who will think it strange, and show you that they think it strange, if you run not with them to the same excess of riot. Against all these moral trials and temptations, your best safeguard will be found in a strong sense of religion, kept habitually present to your mind. You must endeavour, according to the language of Scripture--(and in writing to you I shall always gladly make use of the very words of Scripture, when they suit my purpose, as having a force and an authority which no other words can possess)--you must endeavour to set the Lord always before you. Never for a moment forget that you are continually in the presence of that awful Being, who can, and who will, call you to a strict account for all that you do amiss. Nothing can excuse your forgetting Him.
If you at all believe in a Supreme Being, the Creator and Governor of the world; if you believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and at the same time an