But if it be
otherwise"----The astrologer stopped and sighed deeply. "Sir," replied
the parent, still more alarmed than before, "your words are so kind,
your advice so serious, that I will pay the deepest attention to your
behests; but can you not aid me farther in this most important concern.
Believe me, I will not be ungrateful." "I require and deserve no
gratitude for doing a good action," said the stranger; "in especial for
contributing all that lies in my power, to save from an abhorred fate
the harmless infant to whom, under a singular conjunction of planets,
last night gave life. There is my address; you may write to me from time
to time concerning the progress of the boy in religious knowledge. If he
be bred up as I advise, I think it will be best that he come to my house
at the time when the fatal and decisive period approaches, that is,
before he has attained his twenty-first year complete. If you send him
such as I desire, I humbly trust that God will protect his own, through
whatever strong temptation his fate may subject him to.
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