EDUCATION OF A MAN OF SCIENCE 85 



diifuseness of the youthful essayist, namely, to 

 make him confine himself to a definite number of 

 words, I have even heard an essay on a post card 

 recommended. 



For myself, I believe the best exercise in 

 English I ever had was the correction of my 

 father's proof-sheets. What I found so educational 

 was the necessity of having to explain clearly and 

 exactly why I objected to a given sentence, since 

 I naturally could not baldlyexpress my disapproval. 

 It was not only good training, but as has been well 

 said by my sister (who also helped in this way), "It 

 was inexpressibly exhilarating to work for him" — 

 and she continues — ^referring to the generous way 

 in which he took our suggestions, "I think I felt 

 the singular modesty and gradousness of his nature 

 through thus working for him in a way I should 

 never otherwise have done." 



How far every boy ought to be made to do 

 mathematics (beyond simple arithmetic) I cannot 

 say. I know that I am extremely grateful for the 

 small amount of mathematics forced into me. I 

 am even thankful for a very mechanical side of the 

 subject, namely, the use of mathematical tables 

 in general, and for being compelled to work out 

 innumerable sums by logarithms, which we had to 

 do in a "neat tabular form" to quote our precise 

 master's words. 



Certainly my opportunities were strikingly 

 better than my father's, who records that at 

 Shrewsbury School nothing^ was taught but classics, 



* See, however, a footnote in No. ix. of this volume, p 141. 



