Such offences against good-breeding were considered by them as so
many offences against God himself, shown to one who was about to
profess his ministry; and being prepared to see in Brother Stevens
an object of worth and veneration only, they lacked necessarily all
that keenness of discrimination which might have helped somewhat
to qualify the improprieties of which they believed their son to be
guilty. Of his causes of jealousy they had no suspicion, and they
shared none of his antipathies. He was subject to the daily lecture
from the old man, and the nightly exhortation and expostulation
of the old woman Tho latter did her spiriting gently. The former
roared and thundered. The mother implored and kissed--the father
denounced and threatened. The one, amidst the faults of her you
which she reproved, could see his virtues; she could also see that
he was suffering--she knew not why--as well as sinning; the other
could only see an insolent, disobedient boy who was taking airs upon
himself, flying in the face of his parents, and doomed to perish
like the sons of Eli, unless by proving himself a better manager
than Eli, he addressed himself in time to the breaking in of the
unruly spirit whose offences promised to be so heinous.
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