Distinguished Men of Modern Times: In Four Volumes, Vol. 4 of 4 (Classic Reprint)

From a private school he was removed to Westminster; from Westminster to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was admitted as a gentleman-commoner, A pril 3, 1752, A bout this time his constitution, hitherto extremely feeble, acquired a sudden vigour, which never deserted him during the rest of his life. At Oxford he made absolutely no proficiency in any branch of knowledge, or any useful accomplishment. To the University of Oxford (he says) I acknowledge no obligation; and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. Accordingly he exhausts the severity of his sarcasm, both upon the system which was there established, and upon the men who administered it, without honestly inquiring whether he had laboured to extract, even from an imperfect system, the modicum of advantage which it was capable of yielding. But his recollections of Oxford were embittered by his subsequent contests with some of the clergy, and the jiostile treatment which he sustained at their hands; and the principles which he embraced in after life would have rendered him equally intolerant of any institution, standing on a religious foundation. During his residence at Oxford, and at the usually unreflecting age of sixteen, he was converted to the Roman Catholic faith. He was first stirred to thought by the bold criticism of Middleton. He then swallowed the miracles of the Basils, the Chry Rostoms, and other fathers of the Church; and Bossuet achieved the conquest by tlie Exposition of the Catholic Doctrine, and the History of the Variations. And then he made his formal recantation before a Jesuit, named Baker, one of the Chaplains of the Sardinian A mbassador.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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