84 RISEN B Y PERSE VERANCE. 



putting all things out of order and all men out of humour. 

 When I was commander, the men had a long day of leisure 

 before them ; they could ramble into the town or into the 

 woods, go to get raspberries, to catch birds, to catch fish, or to 

 pursue any other recreation, and such of them as chose and 

 were quahfied, to work at their trades.' 



Much of the spare time of Cobbett was, in his younger 

 years, devoted to a very miscellaneous kind of reading. He 

 ran through all the books of a country circulating library, 

 trash and all ; and, contemptibly as he often affects to speak 

 of literary pursuits, the fruits of these early studies are often 

 revealed in the lively style and the fertility and happiness of 

 allusion which distinguish all his writings. No one has 

 abused Shakespeare so absurdly and truculently — for this was 

 one of Cobbett's many crotchets ; but, then, few have quoted 

 the bard of many - coloured life so aptly and frequently. 

 Shakespeare and the principal English poets were clearly at his 

 finger ends, while, from wayard caprice, he affected ignorance, 

 with contempt of them. Of the arts he knew nothing, not 

 even the mechanic arts ; and his tours in Scotland and Ireland 

 show how little he possessed of what is called general infor- 

 mation — the kind of knowledge which comes almost of itself, 

 and which he despised much more than was needful. Yet, 

 his acquaintance with English classical literature, and even 

 with contemporary authors, must have been extensive, and 

 gradually accumulating, in the gardens of Kew in London, 

 and in New Brunswick, and to the last hour of his life. The 

 Tale of a Tub had introduced the boy to the writings of Swift; 

 and we have been informed by an officer who joined the 53d 

 Regiment shortly after Cobbett left it, that he had written out 

 in some of the regimental books, Diredmis for a Sergeant- 



