120 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the desire for fame, and used to shed tears of sorrow at the thought that 

 this wish could never be gratified, as he had no special talent for any 

 pursuit and his social position was also against him. He attributes this 

 feeling partly to his natural temperament, and partly to his Latin studies, 

 such as they were. During these years he taught his younger brothers 

 and sisters for one hour each evening, except Saturdays and Sundays, 

 for which his father paid him a small fee quarterly. As he had himself 

 been taught almost nothing, he had a poor idea of his performances as 

 a teacher, although his parents and pupils were satisfied with his efforts. 

 At the age of sixteen he had to face the question of a calling. He 

 was feeble, delicate, shabby in appearance, with no conscious bias, but 

 only the wish to live by honest industry. He was offered as an appren- 

 tice to a dealer in woolen cloth, flannel, and small wares, but the pro- 

 prietor, he says, " took me to the door to obtain light to view me better, 

 and turned me round and round : he then politely told my father that 

 I would not suit." On the way to the shop of another cloth-merchant 

 they met one of his uncles, who was told where they were going, and 

 what had happened at the former application. This uncle now sug- 

 gested to the father that they try the law, " For," said he, " you have 

 given George ft good education : we have a numerous connection in 

 town, and there is no writer among us." The father was afraid the}' 

 could not succeed with this idea, but it ended in his going as an appren- 

 tice for five years to a " writer to the Signet," one Alexander Dallas. 

 He had to bring a certificate from Professor Hill, of his attendance at the 

 college for two years. He was terribly alarmed lest Professor Hill 

 should decline to do this because of the utter neglect of his studies dur- 

 ing those two years, but was astonished at the close of the session to get 

 the following document : 



Edinburgh, April 18, 1S04. 



That the bearer, Mr. George Combe, attended the Humanity class in the 

 University of Edinburgh two years, and prosecuted his studies with great dili- 

 gence and success, is attested by 



(Signed) Jo. Hill, Lit. Hum. P. 



Although this certificate gained him the place, the autobiography 

 closes by explaining how completely his schooling had unfitted him for 

 it. His first experiences in the study of law were extremely painful 

 and mortifying. Some degree of independent judgment in the use of 

 words was now required, and of this he was wholly destitute. He had 

 to begin anew his literary education, but by unwearied industry and 

 perseverance he at length aroused his dormant faculties and learned 

 how to use them. Combe thought his helplessness was due to the 

 fact that at school he was taught nothing ; but children nowadays 

 are rendered equally helpless by over-teaching. They get abundant 

 instruction and but little education. Our youths leave school as inca- 

 pable of independent thinking as was Combe himself. With all our 

 boasted progress empty-headed teachers still abound, and the failure of 



