Guy Mannering | Page 2

for the father

and conjure him in the most solemn manner to cause the assistants to
retard the birth if practicable, were it but for five minutes. The answer
declared this to be impossible; and almost in the instant that the
message was returned the father and his guest were made acquainted
with the birth of a boy.
The Astrologer on the morrow met the party who gathered around the
breakfast table with looks so grave and ominous as to alarm the fears of
the father, who had hitherto exulted in the prospects held out by the
birth of an heir to his ancient property, failing which event it must have
passed to a distant branch of the family. He hastened to draw the
stranger into a private room.
'I fear from your looks,' said the father, 'that you have bad tidings to tell
me of my young stranger; perhaps God will resume the blessing He has
bestowed ere he attains the age of manhood, or perhaps he is destined
to be unworthy of the affection which we are naturally disposed to
devote to our offspring?'
'Neither the one nor the other,' answered the stranger; 'unless my
judgment greatly err, the infant will survive the years of minority, and
in temper and disposition will prove all that his parents can wish. But
with much in his horoscope which promises many blessings, there is
one evil influence strongly predominant, which threatens to subject him
to an unhallowed and unhappy temptation about the time when he shall
attain the age of twenty-one, which period, the constellations intimate,
will be the crisis of his fate. In what shape, or with what peculiar
urgency, this temptation may beset him, my art cannot discover.'
'Your knowledge, then, can afford us no defence,' said the anxious
father, 'against the threatened evil?'
'Pardon me,' answered the stranger, 'it can. The influence of the
constellations is powerful; but He who made the heavens is more
powerful than all, if His aid be invoked in sincerity and truth. You
ought to dedicate this boy to the immediate service of his Maker, with
as much sincerity as Samuel was devoted to the worship in the Temple
by his parents. You must regard him as a being separated from the rest

of the world. In childhood, in boyhood, you must surround him with
the pious and virtuous, and protect him to the utmost of your power
from the sight or hearing of any crime, in word or action. He must be
educated in religious and moral principles of the strictest description.
Let him not enter the world, lest he learn to partake of its follies, or
perhaps of its vices. In short, preserve him as far as possible from all
sin, save that of which too great a portion belongs to all the fallen race
of Adam. With the approach of his twenty-first birthday comes the
crisis of his fate. If he survive it, he will be happy and prosperous on
earth, and a chosen vessel among those elected for heaven. But if it be
otherwise--' The Astrologer stopped, and sighed deeply.
'Sir,' replied the parent, still more alarmed than before, 'your words are
so kind, your advice so serious, that I will pay the deepest attention to
your behests; but can you not aid me farther in this most important
concern? Believe me, I will not be ungrateful.'
'I require and deserve no gratitude for doing a good action,' said the
stranger, 'in especial for contributing all that lies in my power to save
from an abhorred fate the harmless infant to whom, under a singular
conjunction of planets, last night gave life. There is my address; you
may write to me from time to time concerning the progress of the boy
in religious knowledge. If he be bred up as I advise, I think it will be
best that he come to my house at the time when the fatal and decisive
period approaches, that is, before he has attained his twenty-first year
complete. If you send him such as I desire, I humbly trust that God will
protect His own through whatever strong temptation his fate may
subject him to.' He then gave his host his address, which was a country
seat near a post town in the south of England, and bid him an
affectionate farewell.
The mysterious stranger departed, but his words remained impressed
upon the mind of the anxious parent. He lost his lady while his boy was
still in infancy. This calamity, I think, had been predicted by the
Astrologer; and thus his confidence, which, like most people of the
period, he had freely given to the science, was riveted and confirmed.
The utmost care, therefore, was taken to carry into effect the severe and

almost ascetic