A Memorable Lesson 



and easy road before him, lying straight 

 ahead. The other follows a rugged path, in 

 which his feet often stumble; he goes groping 

 into the unknown and loses his way. To re- 

 cover the right road, if want of success have 

 not discouraged him, he can rely only on per- 

 severance, the sole compass of the poor. Such 

 was my fate. I taught myself by teaching 

 others, by passing on to them the modicum of 

 seed that had ripened on the barren moor 

 cleared, from day to day, by my patient 

 ploughshare. 



A few months after the incident of the 

 vitriol-bomb, I was sent to Carpentras to take 

 charge of junior classes at the college there. 

 The first year was a difficult one, swamped as 

 I was by the excessive number of pupils, a set 

 of duffers kept out of the more advanced 

 classes and all at different stages in spelling 

 and grammar. Next year, my school is di- 

 vided into two; I have an assistant. A weed- 

 ing-out takes place in my crowd of scatter- 

 brains. I keep the older, the more intelligent 

 ones; the others are to have a term in the 

 preparatory division. From that day for- 

 ward, things are different. Curriculum there 

 is none. In those happy times, the master's 

 personality counted for something; there was 



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