BOYHOOD. 



29 



this school, so that I had the great advantage of living the 

 life of a true schoolboy ; but as the distance was hardly more 

 than a mile to my home, I very often ran there in the longer 

 intervals between the callings over and before locking up at 

 night. This, I think, was in many ways advantageous to me 

 by keeping up home affections and interests. I remember 

 in the early part of my school life that I often had to run 

 very quickly to be in time, and from being a fleet runner was 

 generally successful ; but when in doubt I prayed earnestly 

 to God to help me, and I well remember that I attributed my 

 success to the prayers and not to my quick running, and 

 marvelled how generally I was aided. 



I have heard my father and elder sister say that I had, as 

 a very young boy, a strong taste for long solitary walks ; but 

 what I thought about I know not. I often became quite 

 absorbed, and once, whilst returning to school on the summit 

 of the old fortifications round Shrewsbury, which had been 

 converted into a public foot-path with no parapet on one 

 side, I walked off and fell to the ground, but the height was 

 only seven or eight feet. Nevertheless the number of thoughts 

 which passed through my mind during this very short, but 

 sudden and wholly unexpected fall, was astonishing, and 

 seem hardly compatible with what physiologists have, I be- 

 lieve, proved about each thought requiring quite an appreci- 

 able amount of time. 



Nothing could have been worse for the development of 

 my mind than Dr. Butler's school, as it was strictly classical, 

 nothing else being taught, except a little ancient geography 

 and history. The school as a means of education to me was 

 simply a blank. During my v/hole life I have been singularly 

 incapable of mastering any language. Especial attention was 

 paid to verse-making, and this I could never do well. I had 

 many friends, and got together a good collection of old 

 verses, which by patching together, sometimes aided by other 

 boys, I could work into any subject. Much attention was 

 paid to learning by heart the lessons of the previous day ; 

 this I could effect with great facility, learning forty or fifty 



