Knowledge and Inventions 



uplifting pleasure; and I became anxious to 

 know all the poets, and saved up small sums to 

 buy as many of their books as possible. Within 

 three or four years I was the proud possessor 

 of parts of Shakespeare's, Milton's, Cowper's, 

 Henry Kirke White's, Campbell's, and Aken- 

 side's works, and quite a number of others sel- 

 dom read nowadays. I think it was in my 

 fifteenth year that I began to relish good liter- 

 ature with enthusiasm, and smack my lips over 

 favorite lines, but there was desperately little 

 time for reading, even in the winter evenings, 

 — only a few stolen minutes now and then. 

 Father's strict rule was, straight to bed imme- 

 diately after family worship, which in winter 

 was usually over by eight o'clock. I was in the 

 habit of lingering in the kitchen with a book 

 and candle after the rest of the family had 

 retired, and considered myself fortunate if I 

 got five minutes' reading before father noticed 

 the light and ordered me to bed ; an order that 

 of course I immediately obeyed. But night 

 after night I tried to steal minutes in the same 

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