28 During the space of time which intervened between the time I had the vision and the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three—having been forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought to have been my ^afriends and to have treated me kindly, and if they supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me—I was left to all kinds of ^btemptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish ^cerrors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God. In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature. But I was guilty of ^dlevity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was ^ecalled of God as I had been. But this will not seem very strange to any one who recollects my youth, and is acquainted with my native ^fcheery temperament.