Wesley Corpus

20. "However, there is no such choice of company elsewhere as there is at Oxford or Cambridge." That is most true; for the moment a young man sets his foot either in one or the other, he is surrounded with company of all kinds, except that which would do him good; with loungers and triflers of every sort; (nequid gravius dicam; *) with men who no more concern themselves with learning than with religion; "who waste away In gentle inactivity the day," to say the best of them; for it is to be feared they are not always so innocently employed. It cannot be denied, there is too much choice of this kind of company in every College. There are likewise gentlemen of a better kind: but what chance is there, that a raw young man should find them? seeing the former will everywhere obtrude themselves upon him, while the latter naturally stand at a distance. Company, therefore, is usually so far from being an advantage to those who enter at either University, that it is the grand nuisance, as well as disgrace, of both; the pit that swallows unwary youths by thousands. I bless God we have no such choice of company at Kingswood; nor ever will till my head is laid. There is no trifler, no lounger, no drone there; much less any drunkard, Sabbath-breaker, or common swearer. Whoever accounts this a disadvantage, may find a remedy at any College in Oxford or Cambridge. 21. "Be this as it may, there are other advantages of which no other place can boast. There are exhibitions, scholarships, studentships, fellowships, canonries; to say nothing of headships, and professorships, which are not only accompanied with present honour and large emoluments, but open the way to the highest preferments both in Church and State."