AUTOBIOGRAPHY 5 



fulfilled my early promise in the matter of looks. 

 In fact, I have a distinct recollection of certain 

 curls of which I was vain, and of a conviction that 

 I closely resembled that handsome, courtly gentle- 

 man, Sir Herbert Oakley, who was vicar of our 

 parish, and who was as a god to us country folk, 

 because he was occasionally visited by the then 

 Prince George of Cambridge. I remember turning 

 my pinafore wrong side forwards in order to repre- 

 sent a surplice, and preaching to my mother's maids 

 in the kitchen as nearly as possible in Sir Her- 

 bert's manner one Sunday morning when the rest 

 of the family were at church. That is the earliest 

 indication I can call to mind of the strong clerical 

 affinities which my friend Mr. Herbert Spencer 

 has always ascribed to me, though I fancy they 

 have for the most part remained in a latent 

 state. 



My regular school training was of the briefest, 

 perhaps fortunately, for though my way of life has 

 made me acquainted with all sorts and conditions of 

 men, from the highest to the lowest, I deliberately 

 affirm that the society I fell into at school was the 

 worst I have ever known. We boys were average 

 lads, with much the same inherent capacity for 

 good and evil as any others ; but the people who 

 were set over us cared about as much for our 

 intellectual and moral welfare as if they were 

 baby-farmers. We were left to the operation of 

 the struggle for existence among ourselves, and 



