20 Mary Somerville. 



the Kirk of Scotland and asked a question at 

 random to ascertain the fact. He did the same to 

 the servants. 



When I was between eight and nine years old, my 

 father came home from sea, and was shocked to find 

 me such a savage. I had not yet been taught to 

 write, and although I amused myself reading the 

 " Arabian Nights," " Robinson Crusoe," and the 

 " Pilgrim's Progress," I read very badly, and with a 

 strong Scotch accent ; so, besides a chapter of the 

 Bible, he made me read a paper of the " Spectator " 

 aloud every morning, after breakfast; the conse- 

 quence of which discipline is that I have never since 

 opened that book. Hume's " History of England " 

 was also a real penance to me. I gladly accompanied 

 my father when he cultivated his flowers, which even 

 now I can say were of the best quality. The tulips 

 and other bulbous plants, ranunculi, anemones, car- 

 nations, as well as -the annuals then known, were all 

 beautiful. He used to root up and throw away 

 many plants I thought very beautiful ; he said he 

 did so because the colours of their petals were not 

 sharply defined, and that they would spoil the 

 seed of the others. Thus I learnt to know the 

 good and the bad how to lay carnations, and 

 how to distinguish between the leaf and fruit buds 

 in pruning fruit trees ; this kind of knowledge 



