Mr.Preston held extreme Low Church opinions, and stood in the good books of Mr.Simeon, whose word had long been law in the Cambridge section of the Evangelical circle.

But whatever had been the inducement to make it, the choice proved singularly fortunate.

The tutor, it is true, was narrow in his views, and lacked the taste and judgment to set those views before his pupils in an attractive form.
Theological topics dragged into the conversation at unexpected moments, inquiries about their spiritual state, and long sermons which had to be listened to under the dire obligation of reproducing them in an epitome, fostered in the minds of some of the boys a reaction against the outward manifestations of religion;--a reaction which had already begun under the strict system pursued in their respective homes.

But, on the other hand, Mr.Preston knew both how to teach his scholars, and when to leave them to teach themselves.

The eminent judge, who divided grown men into two sharply defined and most uncomplimentary categories, was accustomed to say that private schools made poor creatures, and public schools sad dogs; but Mr.Preston succeeded in giving a practical contradiction to Sir William Maine's proposition.