THE "AUTOBIOGRAPHY" OF GEORGE COMBE. 113 



He was taken home in September, but such was the effect of the 

 unwholesome position of his father's house, of its overcrowding, and of 

 mistakes in his diet, that he had glandular swellings ending in suppura- 

 tion. His brain was strong and active, and at school would blaze away 

 for a few days until he was completely exhausted, when he would stay 

 at home and lie on the sofa three or four days till the nervous energy 

 was recruited. (These alternating periods of vivacity and exhaustion 

 continued throughout his life.) He thus records an incident of his 

 childhood, as an example of the influence which a passing observation 

 of a sensible servant may exercise on the mind of an earnest, thoughtful 

 child : 



About this time one of my mother's servants from whom I received sincere 

 sympathy, observing my feeble condition, said, " O laddie, you should never 

 marry." Young as I was, I understood her meaning, and her remark made an 

 indelible impression on me. 



The train of thought which, late in life, Combe gave to the world 

 in his essay upon " Religion and Science " was started by an incident 

 of his early childhood. When six or seven years old he was given a 

 lump of candy. The nurse-girl asked him to share it with his brothers 

 and sisters, which he did. The girl then assured him that God would 

 reward him for it. When he asked her " How ? " she told him God 

 would send him everything that was good. Should he get more candy ? 

 he inquired. Yes the girl told him, if he was a good boy. Would the 

 piece he had left grow bigger ? " Yes," was the reply, " God always re- 

 wards the kind-hearted." So the remaining piece was carefully wrapped 

 in paper and put in a drawer and left all night. The next morning he 

 examined it with eager curiosity, but no change could be discovered in 

 it, and he had the bitterness to find that he had been benevolent at 

 his own expense. His faith in the reward of virtue received a shock, 

 and it was a long time before he learned the true nature of Divine 

 rewards for good deeds. 



While still a child, he saw a man and woman walking near the 

 verge of the highest part of Salisbury Crags. Soon an alarm was given 

 that the man had pushed the woman over the precipice and she was 

 killed. The man fled down the northeast slope of the hill and never 

 was discovered. Combe says his imagination was haunted by the 

 recollection of this scene ; and he was terrified to go to sleep lest he 

 should see the murdered woman's ghost. The belief in ghosts was 

 universal in his juvenile circle, and a sore superstition it was, for he held 

 " every belief to be as true as the most indubitable facts." Another 

 striking event of his early boyhood awakened in him a sense of the 

 mistakes of Government. Two sons of a poor widow, whom his 

 father had helped, poured forth their gratitude in every form of kind- 

 ness to his father's children. One of them had been to Greenland in a 

 whale-ship and he delighted young George with accounts of the perils 

 and excitements of whale-fishing. Paid spies of the press-gang g-ave in- 



VOL. XT. 8 



