1 6 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



I think I can revive my principal feelings at that 

 early age with fair correctness, their change during 

 growth seeming to have been chiefly due to the 

 increased range of mental prospect. The horizon of 

 a child is very narrow and his sky very near. His 

 father is the supreme of beings. He has to learn by 

 slow degrees that there are more and more appreciable 

 stages between the highest and the lowest, and the 

 number of such stages that he can discriminate affords 

 a good measure of his mental calibre at the time. 

 It was about the date of which I have been speaking 

 that my second brother, Erasmus, then a boy of twelve 

 or thirteen, entered the navy, and showed himself to 

 us in his uniform, with the dagger or "dirk" that 

 was part of it. I, a child of five or so, fingered it 

 with awe, and with my little head full of Greeks and 

 Trojans looked upon him as a hero, like Achilles, 

 and can perfectly recall my sense of increased security 

 from knowing that England could henceforth avail 

 herself of his puissant arm and terrible weapon. 



I lived and throve in what was practically the 

 country until the age of eight, when I was sent to a 

 school at Boulogne, whither my father escorted me. 

 It was erroneously supposed that I should learn 

 French there and acquire a good accent. What I 

 did learn was the detestable and limited patois that 

 my eighty schoolfellows were compelled to speak 

 under penalty of a fine, and in this cruel way. There 

 were transferable metal labels which were called 

 " marks," and the boys in whose possession these 

 marks remained after each playtime received a bad 

 record whose accumulation up to a certain point 

 entailed punishment. I rebelled with my whole heart 



