ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY, &C. 99 



But if we were to detail alt the woes of that period, the young of these 

 days would not believe us. No penny magazines, no useful knowledge 

 books, no alphabets or catechisms of knowledge, no maps, no magazines 

 for Saturday afternoon, and at a price convenient to school-boys ; but in 

 their place little tawdry books, which were read in five minutes, and left 

 the mind wofuUy unsatisfied, and the pocket empty. Miss Edgeworth 

 was little known to us. No magazines we saw, save now and then the 

 Gentleman's, which was not always diverting, or some numbers of the 

 Town and Country Magazine, not very improving to young people, 

 indeed not very decent. Robinson Crusoe was commonly given to 

 young persons by godfathers or godmothers, and never failed to delight 

 them ; and of more instructive reading. Cook's voyages, or a volume of 

 an encyclopaedia full of incorrect information, were the general limits. 

 It seems but the other day since we went, then an unhappy little boy, 

 into a bookseller's shop with a respected friend, long since in his grave, 

 whose kind intention it was to store our vacant mind with a little know- 

 ledge of the arts of life ; and the feelings of disappointment with which 

 the bookseller's desponding shake of the head filled us when he was 

 asked for some little work which would teach ** how glass was made and 

 things of that sort," is not yet forgotten. Many a year elapsed before 

 we knew how glass was made. We conquered Corderius, we stumbled 

 through Eutropius, we subjugated Cornelius Nepos, we assailed the 

 Greek testament, we read Ovid and Virgil, we guessed through Xenophon, 

 and murdered Horace daily for many a long year, but of the making of 

 glass we had no conception. Ever and anon the question of its making 

 recurred to us, and once or twice we ventured to ask older heads about 

 it, but all mankind were as ignorant as ourselves. In process of time we 

 became, as people do, a little older, and were allowed to attend an 

 occasional lecture on some scientific subject. Then a new world burst 

 upon us. Honoured be the names of Moys, of Nicholl, of Jackson, of 

 the Walkers, father and son, and of Birkbeck, for them we heard in our 

 youthful days. Great was our affection for the electrical machine : 

 speechless our wonder when first the mystic orrery was displayed to us : 

 concerning oxygen gas we were enthusiastic. But these pleasures were 

 rare : we had no other helps to knowledge ; and when the lecturer left 

 the place (for these excellent teachers did not disdain to be itinerant), he 

 seemed to take most of our information with him, or merely left us 

 enough to know how ignorant our best friends were on every subject of 

 science. A philanthropist presented us with Gregory's Lessons on 

 philosophical subjects ; and one sensible book we had at school, one only, 

 and that was a geographical work. It happened, too, that the kindest 

 friend we ever had in our lives, a boy of our own years, and an only son, 

 had a poetical library, ever open to us, and a marvel in our eyes. By an 

 accidental direction given to our minds, also, we were fain, in the absence 

 of elementary works of physical science, to bewilder ourselves with 

 metaphysics ; an application which we now look back upon as merely 

 indicating how much we should have learnt if the channels of physical 

 knowledge had then been open, as they now are, to the youthful 

 understanding. At length we grew up to man's estate, and a pro- 

 fession was determined upon, and then we found out that we had 

 lived insensibly in the world at least a score of years, having eyes 

 but seeing nothing. The earth beneath us, the sky above us, the 

 flowers around us, all were unknown ; and to gain some knowledge of 

 these things, amidst pressing engagements and duties, has since that 

 time occupied many anxious days; the knowledge always remaining 

 much more imperfect than it would have been if we had been enabled to 



