u6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



us some account of the nature of a thunderstorm, and how after a terrible crash 

 the danger is past ; and thus sustained our courage till the clouds cleared away. 

 No other items of general information, except these two, dwell in my memory 

 as having been communicated during the four years of my attendance. 



In 1798 or 1799 I was sent to Mr. Swanston's school, to learn writing and 

 arithmetic. In winter I was in his school, and Mr. Fraser's from eight in the 

 morning till 2 p. m., without any interval of repose ; and in summer from 7 a. m. 

 till 4 and often till 6 p. m., with only one hour, from 9 to 10 A. m., for breakfast. 

 Add to this labor lessons to prepare in the evenings, a constant feeling of inani- 

 tion, especially during winter, cold feet and thin clothing, with no object in 

 the world in my lessons to interest me, and it may well be conceived how the 

 state of sin and misery brought on man by the fall was to me a palpable, unde- 

 niable, experienced reality. A few explanations will throw light on the causes 

 of these sufferings. Too much cerebral action, and a close, ill-aired bedroom, 

 with three besides myself in it, made me in the morning low, listless, irritable, 

 and without appetite. My mother had been taught that oatmeal-porridge and 

 buttermilk were the best food for children for breakfast. The buttermilk was 

 bought in large quantities from dairymen's carts in the street. Frequently it 

 was not fresh when bought, and it daily became more acid when kept. To my 

 delicate stomach it often tasted like vinegar, and I revolted at the porridge. In 

 my mother's eyes this was fastidious delicacy of taste, and she ordered the por- 

 ridge to be kept for my dinner. I received a penny to buy a roll for my mid-day 

 sustenance. At that time the quartern loaf ranged from a shilling to twenty 

 pence in price, and the penny roll was a small morsel for a young, hungry, 

 growing boy. On going out, however, I bought the roll at the first shop there 

 was one close by my father's gate. I ate it dry, and had no more food till half- 

 past two, when I came home to dinner. My mother was not so severe as she 

 had threatened to be, for she gave me a dinner that I could eat; but she never 

 failed to have the porridge served in the morning. In all this she was actuated 

 by a sense of duty alone, for she was ever aiming at our welfare. Ignorance 

 was the rock on which her kindest endeavors were wrecked, and she was not to 

 be blamed for not knowing what nobody else in her rank, or, so far as I have 

 yet discovered, in any other rank of life, then knew. The cold feet and thin 

 clothing were the consequence of my own self-willed ignorance. She pressed 

 flannel underclothing on me, but because it irritated my excessively sensitive 

 skin I rejected it, and pleaded that it was good for me to learn to be hardy in 

 my youth, to prepare for the trials and exposures of manhood : this was listened 

 to, and the flannel was not forced on me. In the school, and in the "West 

 Ohnrch especially, in which in those days there were no stoves, I often sat 

 chilled like an icicle, and my only surprise is how I survived so much irrational 

 treatment and stupid conduct. 



My constitution, which must have been originally strong, suffered permanent 

 deterioration from all these injurious influences. The bones were imperfectly 

 developed; and bent clavicles and a slight distortion of the spine, with chronic 

 irritability of the mucous membrane of the lungs, were the consequences. The 

 benches of the High School had no backs, but some of them stood close to the 

 walls. I suffered greatly from inability to sit upright, during the long hours of 

 confinement, on the seats away from the wall ; and have no doubt that then and 

 there the distortion of the spine was produced. I often abstained from getting 

 up to the third " form " because the fourth stood next the wall and supported 

 my back ! 



