CHOICE OF STUDIES. 7 



drawing caricatures, of the kind that Gilray was so 1822. 

 famous for. I took great interest in these drawings, and Carica- 

 I had the privilege of suggesting a subject now and then. 

 Two of them I remember the one, " Charon's boat," 

 with figures; the other, "The Devil," with the three 

 black graces, Law, Physic, and Divinity. It seems an odd 

 thing to record, but I well remember that I was advanced 

 in " Eland's Quadratic Equations " when De Morgan took 

 up that well-known elementary book, " Bridge's Algebra," 

 for the first time. But it was so. He read Bridge's 

 book like a novel. In less than a month he had gone 

 through that treatise and dashed into Bland, and so got 

 out of sight, as far as I was concerned. It is scarcely 

 necessary to say that all his school work was admirably 

 performed. Mr. Parsons had the highest opinion of him.' l 



Mr. Parsons being a good classical scholar, his aim 

 was rather to make his boys good classics than mathe- 

 maticians. If the mathematical power had not made 

 itself apparent, and taken the place of all other interests 

 in the pupil's mind, his studies would probably have 

 taken the direction desired by his master. As it was, he 

 was a good Greek and Latin scholar, and his classical 

 reading was wide and varied. The teaching at Redland 

 School was good, but abuses creep in everywhere. Here 

 is an account of a way of saying the lessons, given to 

 me by my husband in explanation of some remarks I 

 had written on education. Like the midnight entertain- 

 ment before mentioned, the story will afford hints to 

 teachers rather than an example for pupils : 



'An ingenious application of the logical fallacy of a 

 part for the whole was invented by schoolboys by the 

 help of Providence, to moderate a mischief which would 

 otherwise have been severely felt. It was thought neces- 

 sary that boys should learn by heart Latin and Greek 



1 The writer of the above died two years after his friend, his 

 affection for whom was one of the strongest feelings in his mind while 

 consciousness remained. 



