But whether the little boy was himself or his brother Vernon, whom he had never seen, he couldn't quite tell.
But above all, it was happy for Eric that his training was religious and enlightened.

With Mrs.Trevor and her daughter, religion was not a system but a habit--not a theory, but a continued act of life.

All was simple, sweet, and unaffected about their charity and their devotions.
They loved God, and they did all the good they could to those around them.

The floating gossip and ill-nature of the little village never affected them; it melted away insensibly in the presence of their cultivated minds; and so friendship with them was a bond of union among all, and from the vicar to the dairyman every one loved and respected them, asked their counsel, and sought their sympathy.
They called themselves by no sectarian name, nor could they have told to what "party" they belonged.

They troubled themselves with no theories of education, but mingled gentle nurture with "wholesome neglect." There was nothing exotic or constrained in the growth of Eric's character.