CHAP, i.] EDUCATION 5 



then I was expected to learn it by myself. What we knew 

 as " doing lessons " which now I believe passes under the 

 more advanced name of " preparation " was left to my 

 own care, and if this proved next morning not to have been 

 duly given I had reason to amend my ways. The prepara- 

 tion hour was from four to five o'clock, but if the lessons 

 had not been learned by that time they were expected to be 

 done somehow, though I think my mother was very lenient 

 if any tolerably presentable reason were given for short 

 measure. If the work were completed in less than the 

 allotted time, I was allowed to amuse myself by reading 

 poetry, of which I was excessively fond, from the great 

 volume of " Extracts " from which my lesson had been 

 learned. This plan seems to me to have had many advan- 

 tages. For one thing, I carried the morning's explanations 

 in my head till called upon, and for another, I think it gave 

 some degree of self-reliance, as well as a habit of useful, 

 quiet self-employment for a definite time. This was, in all 

 reason, expected to be carefully adhered to, and I can well 

 remember when I had hurried home from a summer's walk 

 how the muscles in my legs would twitch whilst I endea- 

 voured to learn a French verb. 



One educational detail which, as far as my experience 

 goes, appears to have been much better conducted in my 

 young days than at present, was that reading aloud to 

 the little people had not then come into vogue. I 

 have no recollection of being allowed to lie about on 

 the carpet, heels in the air, whilst some one read a 

 book to me. There was also the peculiarity to which, if I 

 remember rightly, Sir Benjamin Brodie attributes in 

 his autobiography some of his success in life, viz., work 

 was almost continuous. There was never an interval of 

 some weeks' holidays. A holiday was granted on some 

 great occasion, such as the anniversary of my father and 

 mother's wedding-day and birthdays, and on the birthdays 

 of other members of the family, but (if occurring on con- 

 secutive days) somewhat under protest ; and half-holidays 

 were not uncommon in summer. These consisted of my 

 being excused the afternoon preparation of lessons, and as 

 the pretext for asking was generally the weather's being "so 

 very fine," I conjecture it was thought that an extra run in 

 the fresh air was perhaps a healthy variety of occupation. 

 Any way, the learning lost must have been small, for excep- 

 ting the written part of the work the lessons were expected 

 to appear next morning in perfect form, however miscel- 



