I 



CHILDHOOD. 25 



that solemn apartment. There was not nearly work enough 

 to keep the boy employed, and he enjoyed a great deal of 

 leisure. The time he spent at Mr. Garland's office was 

 veiy pleasant. The further end of the counting-house was 

 occupied by an antique bookcase, in which were many old 

 books and a few new ones. There was an extensive series 

 of the Gentleman s Magazine, and another of the Town and 

 Country Magazine ; and these the boy read with great 

 avidity. But, far more important to record, it was in this 

 bookcase that Philip discovered a volume which exercised, 

 as he has said, " a more powerful fascination upon me than 

 anything which I had ever read." This was the first 

 edition of Byron's Lara, the issue of 18 14, with Roger's 

 Jacqueline printed at the end of it. To the close of his 

 days my father used to avow, with rising heat, that it was 

 most impertinent of Rogers to pour out his warm water by 

 the side of Byron's wine. Lara he had till now, in 1825, 

 never even heard of, but as he read and re-read, devouring 

 the romantic poem with an absorbing interest which 

 bbliterated the world about him, almost the entire book 

 imprinted itself upon his memory, and remained there 

 indelibly impressed. The reading of Lara, he says, " was 

 an era to me ; for it was the dawning of Poetry on my 

 imagination. It appeared to me that I had acquired a new 

 sense. Before this I had, of course, read some poetry, 

 many standard pieces of the eighteenth century, including 

 something of Covvper, Thomson, and Shenstone ; but 

 Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden I knew only by the 

 extracts in my school-books, and of the modern sensational 

 school nothing at all." About the same time, the two 

 volumes of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads came into his 

 hands, and caused him great pleasure, tame, however, it must 

 be confessed, in comparison with his ecstatic enjoyment of 

 Byron's tale. 



