proceeding therein, and also for your good and speedy exploit," commanding him for that time to take his rest, and to repair again to him after dinner for the further relation of his embassy.

At the appointed time, Wolsey reported his embassy to the king and council with such a graceful deportment, and so eloquent language, that he received the utmost applause, all declaring him to be a person of so great capacity and diligence that he deserved to be further employed.

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The deanery of Lincoln, reckoned one of the most valuable preferments in the church, was immediately bestowed upon him he was marked as a rising favourite; and, had the king's life been prolonged, there is no doubt that Wolsey would have been promoted under him to the highest offices in the state.

But Henry, while meditating his second marriage, was attacked by a disease which carried him to the tomb; and Wolsey had to concert fresh plans for his own advancement under a new monarch only eighteen years of age, gay and frolicsome, fond of amusement, and averse from business. The royal chaplain, while resident at court, must have seen the prince from time to time; but hitherto had made no acquaintance with him, cautious in showing any accordance with the tastes of the son, lest he should give offence to the father.

That caution was no longer necessary; and as it happened that his former pupil, the young Marquis of Dorset, was an intimate friend of the new king, Henry the Eighth, an introduction was easily obtained

by Wolsey, who at once conformed to the taste of the youthful sovereign, and won his heart. He jested, he sang, he danced, he caroused with the king and his gay companions; and, in a very short time, by his extraordinary address, he supplanted others who appeared to stand in the way of his own promotion,

among whom was one of those who recommended him to the former king. He soon was made a Privy Councillor, a post of great honour; and was appointed King's Almoner, or distributor of private charity, an office which kept him in constant attendance on the person of the monarch in his hours of

relaxation, and thereby enabled him to acquire over the mind of Henry an ascendancy which was imputed to magic. It is said, however, that though Wolsey, for the purposes of ambition, countenanced irregularities at Court, unsuitable to the presence of a priest, he was careful, when any proper opportunity offered, to give good advice to the king, as well in respect to his personal as his political conduct, and highly tending on both accounts to his advantage and improvement. He would instil into bis mind a lesson on the art of government over a game at primero; and after a roistering party with him at night, he would hold with him in the morning a disputation on a question out of Thomas Aquinas, a celebrated and profoundly learned doctor and writer.

It was agreeable to the young king to have near him a person who was double his own age, and was a priest as well, who yet encouraged and joined with him in the pleasures of youth, and instead of warning him faithfully to "Flee youthful lusts," which "war against the soul," as a truly good gospel minister would have done, actually encouraged the gay and giddy monarch to follow and indulge in them. It was fearfully wicked in Wolsey to do this.

And now, having so far followed Thomas Wolsey in his rapid career towards fortune and power, we shall, in the next chapter, take a stride over some years, and show him at the summit of his elevation. But it was wonderful that this son of an obscure tradesman in a country town, should rise so high even as we have already seen. What was the secret of this success? It is a secret worth knowing, and yet not so great a

secret either; for many know it, though not so many practise it. It is seen in two words: ENERGY and PERSEVERANCE. Whatsoever Thomas Wolsey's hands found to do, he did it with all his might. True, this Ipswich boy had great capacity; and, as he grew to manhood, that capacity more and more unfolded itself. He had strong powers of bodily endurance, so that he could bear fatigue without giving up. It is very probable that his training as a butcher's son was useful to him in after life, and helped him to take that rapid journey into Germany and back again (the greater part of it being performed on horseback) with so little inconvenience. At any rate Thomas Wolsey had not been delicately brought up; and his naturally strong constitution had been strengthened by bodily exercise. He had also natural powers of pleasing all whom he wished to please. If it had not been for this quality, which, no doubt, he cultivated to the best of his ability, it is not likely he would have found so many powerful patrons just when he wanted help and countenance; so that when one and another and another were lost to him by death, others took him at once by the hand. All this is to be admitted; but neither mental capacity, nor a strong and healthy constitution, nor fascination of manner, nor any other favourable quality he may have possessed, nor all these put together, would have given him the worldly advantages to which he attained, if it had not been for that quality which is, more or less, at every boy's command, or within his reach-energetic perseverance. This has been proved over and over again in the histories of others who, with every conceivable ad

vantage excepting this, have failed to make headway in life, and have sunk into obscurity if not into contempt. The story of Wolsey, therefore, thus far told, teaches a valuable lesson to boys: Be energetic and persevering. Whatever you have to do, do it.

But here the lesson of Thomas Wolsey, as an example for imitation, must stop. It would have been well for him if the object he set before himself had been really worthy of all the energy he bestowed upon it, or if that same persevering determination had been bestowed upon a more worthy object of pursuit. But it was not.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Teacher sent from God, asks us in solemn words, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" He tells us, in plain direct language, to "seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.” Now this Thomas Wolsey did not do. He paid no heed to these injunctions and warnings, though, by becoming a priest, he had made it his especial business to impress them on others. Look at him, as shown in his history thus far. See him bending all his great powers to the one object of worldly ambition. To advance his own interests and to get wealth, he was willing and ready, in the first place, to obtain learning; then to apply himself to the art of pleasing; then to put forth great bodily exertion and activity; then to give himself to dissolute and vicious pursuits, to endear himself to the young king. In all this his moving principle was love of self, and neither love to God nor love to man was thought of.