1817 32. ATTRACTIVE MANNER. 25 



and at a later period, in female society. The frankness of his 

 manner, and the total absence of any shyness or awkward 

 reserve in such intercourse, was certainly a very noticeable 

 characteristic in a boy ; for the very opposite is almost in- 

 variably manifested in those days of peg-tops, marbles, and 

 leap-frog, whatever be the change that a few years produce. 



" Great changes have meanwhile transpired. Among others 

 not to be overlooked, our father had purchased a share in the 

 Edinburgh Select Subscription Library one of those admirable 

 proprietary lending libraries with which Edinburgh is peculiarly 

 favoured and there we were turned loose, like colts in a rich 

 field of clover, to revel as we pleased in the wide range of 

 English literature. I doubt if such unrestrained literary license 

 is conducive to accurate scholarship, in that sense on which 

 English University men plume themselves, not altogether 

 without reason, on their superiority ; but it was invaluable for 

 the healthful development of the innate intellectual powers of 

 the eager youth, and for evoking whatever was original in his 

 mind, by leaving him to follow out the bent of his tastes. A 

 reference to the books of the library would show a singularly 

 varied reading, embracing a very wide range for a boy; and 

 well calculated to bring out all the individuality of his in- 

 quiring mind. It is the grave fault of some of our school 

 and still more of our college systems of education, that a boy 

 passes through them as if he had been put into a mould, and 

 comes out with the mere impress of the routine system and 

 unvarying standard of its tests, instead of having his own intel- 

 lectual powers quickened into healthful development." 



A striking feature of George's later life was manifested in 

 those journeyings, namely, the power he had of gaining friends 

 and acquiring information. One of his fellow-travellers to 

 Glasgow, by the canal boat, gives the following account of him 

 when eleven years old : " George placed himself side by side 

 with the greatest person on board (the captain) and plied him 

 with question after question till the moment he left the boat. 

 Before leaving, he very politely went up to the captain and 

 mate, and thanked them heartily for their attention and infor- 



