2 THE EEV. J. G. WOOD. 



England. The first child of the marriage was still- 

 born ; and my father, who came next, was thus 

 practically the eldest of a family of fourteen. Of these, 

 however, several died in infancy, and two more only 

 lived to early womanhood. 



My father himself was a weak and sickly child 

 from his birth, and for several years, indeed, it was 

 never thought that he could possibly live to reach 

 maturity. He suffered principally from violent attacks 

 of croup, which recurred at frequent intervals, and, 

 until he was eleven years of age, obliged him to be kept 

 under constant supervision at home. Yet the child 

 managed to pick up a wonderful stock of knowledge in 

 spite of his delicate state of health, and was always 

 occupied in learning something, in some of the thousand 

 and one ways which presented themselves to his ever- 

 active mind. Partly by instruction of the ordinary 

 character, and partly by a species of self-tuition peculiar 

 to himself, he learnt to read with wonderful rapidity 

 and facility, and at four years of age was thoroughly 

 familiar with the historical portions of the New 

 Testament, and was manifesting the first signs of the 

 extreme fondness for books which afterwards charac- 

 terised the whole of his life. He could not be kept 

 from them. A book, merely as a book, had an intense 

 fascination for him, and he read with avidity almost 

 everything that came in his way, and not only read, 

 but remembered it. Indeed, he always had a most 

 wonderful memory, except for dates and names, which 

 he could seldom recollect at all. To the end of his 



