PICTUEES OF CHILDHOOD. 5 



happen to become famous in after years, admiring and 

 credulous biographers tell wonderful stories about them, 

 but for the most part these stories are myths. The 

 infancy of the great, we * think, should be surrounded 

 with marvellous influences. It will never do for us to 

 make them common mortals like ourselves. So if we 

 fail to discover any traits of early divinity we must 

 boldly invent them. Should the cheat be discovered 

 the world will forgive it, for the sake of the pleasure it 

 has given them. 



That the childhood of Alexander, however, was 

 an exceedingly happy one, cannot be doubted, for if 

 ever Nature was kindly disposed towards any of her 

 children, it was towards him. He was born of wealthy 

 and noble parents, who mingled, by virtue of their rank 

 and worth, with the most illustrious of the land. His 

 home, the old castle of Tegel, situated in a pleasant 

 country, was surrounded by charming and varied land- 

 scapes. His earliest glimpse of Nature was beautiful 

 enough to make him desire to see the rest of the book : 

 it was a fair page that opened before his childish eyes. 

 And here, if the reader is imaginative, he can employ 

 himself in filling up the outlines of the first five or six 

 years of Alexander's life. He may picture him in the 

 chambers of the old castle, climbing up his father's knee, 

 and wondering, as he runs his fingers through his gray 

 hair, what the wrinkles on his forehead mean ; or tugging 

 at the gown of his mother to make her answer some un- 

 answerable question ; or, likelier still, scrambling on the 

 floor with his brother William, and a heap of toys. 

 Some day when playing alone, he sees the bookcase in 

 the corner, and remembering, as in a dream, the pic- 



