THE PLAIN 'ENGLISH' OF IT. 181 



were all, Heaven help our First-class-men and Senior- 

 wranglers ! But if you want to know the real value 

 and blessing of that tedious operation that seems to cut 

 up our early liberties, for so many years, into 'morning 

 and evening lessons,' watch the efforts of a naturally 

 strong and gifted mind, struggling in the after-years 

 of life against the stereotyped effects of early neglect. 



There is no class, probably, in society, amongst 

 whom more striking instances of this occur than the 

 agricultural : none, perhaps, in which there is less of 

 what is called ' book-learning ; ' none, certainly, in 

 which there is more of natural shrewdness, and a sort 

 of furtive observation which shrinks from being itself 

 observed ; paying the tribute of a kind of secret in- 

 telligence and appreciation to qualifications and at- 

 tainments which it never affects, and, to the careless 

 eye, appears to despise. But it discriminates nicely. 

 For Nature is a schoolmaster that teaches without 

 spelling-books. To the husbandman, toiling early 

 and late, her rede goeth forth, but it is not speech 

 nor language : it inwardly informs : and as the 

 teacher teaches, so the scholar learns. 



Such was the case with my good friend Mr. 

 Greening ; for I have tried to delineate his cha- 

 racter, which was an admirable type of a class still 



