90 WANT OF EDUCATION. CHAP. vi. 



cation should have been so much neglected in his 

 boyhood. He had, it is true, been at three schools 

 before he was six years old, but, as we have already 

 seen, he was turned away from them all because of 

 his love of " beasts." He had learned comparatively 

 little from his schoolmasters, who knew little them- 

 selves, and perhaps taught less. He was able to 

 read, though with difficulty. Arithmetic was to him 

 a thing unknown. He had not even learnt to write. 

 It was scarcely possible that he could have learned 

 much in his boyhood, for he went to work when he 

 was only six years old. 



An attempt was made to teach him writing, whilst 

 he was apprenticed to Begg, the drunken shoemaker. 

 He asked leave to attend a writing school held in the 

 evening. His master could not, or would not, under- 

 stand the meaning of his request. " What ! " said he, 

 "learn to write! I suppose you will be asking to 

 learn dancing next ! What business have you with 

 writing ? Am I to be robbed of my time to enable 

 you to learn to write?" Edward's parents supported 

 the application, and at last the master gave his con- 

 sent. But there was always some work to do, or 

 something to finish and carry home to the master's 

 customers, so that Edward rarely attended the writ- 

 ing school ; and at the end of the quarter, he knew 

 very little more of penmanship than he did at the 

 beginning. 



Edward had to begin at the beginning with 



