Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

1798-1821.]

PLEASANT REMEMBRANCES.

37

of interest in my future welfare, said to me, " You have, no
doubt, noticed that we have never spoken to you on the subject of religion; but you know, from the frequency of our
daily services, how essential to our salvation we consider it.
We knew that your father was a Protestant, and it was as a
Protestant child that he placed you with us for your education; and we should have been guilty of a breach of trust if
we had sought to convert you from his way of thinking.
But I trust, my dear child, that you will be a religious man,
and that you will never allow a day to pass without thanking our Heavenly Father for his mercies to you, and asking
his blessing on your future life." I need not say that I was
deeply affected by this good man's parting words. The other
priests-Houdet, Riviere, and Richards-took leave of me in
the same affectionate manner, and I had a pleasant correspondence with several of them until the bonds between us were severed by their death. My conduct was satisfactory to them,
and my proficiency in study was in advance of that of most of
my fellow-students. Indeed, I was usually at the head of my
class, or next to the head; and my instructors often encouraged me to exertion by telling me that I had talents, which,
with diligent cultivation, would give me a distinguished career
in life. I paid a visit to the College not long ago. It had
been removed from a suburb on the river to the mountain
which overlooks the city and gives it its name, Mont-real. Of
the personnel of the institution none remained but the porter,
who was nearly a hundred years of age; and as my visit
brought to my remembrance the good men who had sent out
on the voyage of life hundreds of youths with so rich a freight
of well-formed habits and pure counsels, it suggested with
striking vividness a thought which has recently by a popular
author been moulded into a beautiful and just tribute to the
unobtrusive labors of some of the world's best benefactors and
guides: " The growing good of the world is partly dependent
on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you
and me as they might have been is half owing to the num