only to things visible and temporal, but when filled by the Spirit of God, it occupies itself about things invisible and eternal. And precisely as the body needs the presence and operation of the soul for the discharge of its offices in relation to this world, so does the soul need the influences of the Holy Spirit for the discharge of its duties with reference to the world to come.'
These sermons and these passages deserve notice here particularly, because their teaching moulded the young mind of James Thomason. From them it might be inferred, what indeed proved actually to be the case, that he would grow up to be a good Churchman, a follower of the Book of Common Prayer, a religious man of broad sympathies and charitable sentiments; that he would be devoted to missions to the heathen, and that he would ever strive to attain spiritual-mindedness.
Arriving in London during August, 1814, he goes for a month's visit to various friends of Simeon's. Early in the following month, September, he is taken to school at Aspeden (or Aspenden) in Hertfordshire. The coach from Cambridge to London has, among other passengers, a trio consisting of Simeon, Mrs. Dornford and the boy James, her grandson, as far as Buntingford, in Hertfordshire, twenty-two miles distant. Alighting there, they would be met by Mr. Preston and conducted across the beautiful grounds to Aspeden Hall. There they find a palatial building, originally of Tudor architecture, reconstructed during the last century in the Italian
