4 • AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



he makes himself responsible; in the latter, he allows the pub- 

 lication of a mass of more or less fulsome inaccuracies for 

 which he will be held responsible by those who are familiar 

 with the prevalent art of self-advertisement. On the whole, 

 it may be better to get over the " burlesque of being employed 

 in this manner" and do the thing himself. 



It was by reflections of this kind that, some years ago, I 

 was led to \vrite and permit the publication of the subjoined 

 sketch. 



I was born about eight o'clock in the morning on the 

 4th of May, 1825, at Eahng, which was, at that time, as quiet 

 a little country village as could be found within half-a-dozen 

 miles of Hyde Park Corner. Now it is a suburb of London 

 with, I believe, 30,000 inhabitants. My father was one of 

 the masters in a large semi-public school which at one time 

 had a high reputation. I am not aware that any portents 

 preceded my arrival in this world, but, in my childhood, I 

 remember hearing a traditional account of the manner in 

 which I lost the chance of an endowment of great practical 

 value. The windows of my mother's room were open, in 

 consequence of the unusual warmth of the weather. For the 

 same reason, probably, a neighbouring beehive had swarmed, 

 and the new colony, pitching on the window-sill, was making 

 its way into the room when the horrified nurse shut down the 

 sash. If that well-meaning woman had only abstained from 

 her ill-timed interference, the swarm might have settled on 

 my lips, and I should have been endowed with that mellif- 

 luous eloquence which, in this country, leads far more surely 

 than worth, capacity, or honest work, to the highest places 

 in Clmrch and State. But the opportunity was lost, and I 

 have been obliged to content myself through life with saying 

 what I mean in the plainest of plain language, than which, 



