Relief from Study. 65 



bed on account of the excessive cold having no 

 fire at that hour and read algebra or the classics 

 till breakfast time. I had, and still have, deter- 

 mined perseverance, but I soon found that it was 

 in vain to occupy niy mind beyond a certain time. 

 I grew tired and did more harm than good ; so, if I 

 met with a difficult point, for example, in algebra, 

 instead of poring over it till I was bewildered, I left 

 it, took my work or some amusing book, and resumed 

 it when my mind was fresh. Poetry was my great 

 resource on these occasions, but at a later period 

 I read novels, the " Old English Baron," the 

 " Mysteries of Udolpho," the " Eomance of the 

 Forest," &c. I was very fond of ghost and witch 

 stories, both of which were believed in by most of 

 the common people and many of the better educated. 

 I heard an old naval officer say that he never opened 

 his eyes after he was in bed. I asked him why ? 

 and he replied, "For fear I should see something !" 

 Now I did not actually believe in either ghosts or 

 witches, but yet, when alone in the dead of the 

 night, I have been seized with a dread of, I know 

 not what. Few people will now understand me if I 

 say I was eerie, a Scotch expression for supersti- 

 tious awe. I have been struck, on reading the life 

 of the late Sir David Brewster, with the influence 

 the superstitions of the age and country had on 



