96 Want of Education. [CHAP. VI. 
land country and of the sea-coast. He knew the habitats 
of various birds and animals. Some of the former he pro- 
cured and stuffed; for by this time he had acquired the art 
of preserving birds as well as insects. But while he lived 
in lodgings he had no room for stuffed birds or preserved 
moths and butterflies. It was only when he got a home of 
his own that he began to make a collection of these objects. 
It was a great disadvantage to him that his education 
should have been so much neglected in his boyhood. He 
had, it is true, been at three schools before he was six years 
old; but, as we have'already seen, he was turned away from 
them all because of his love of “beasts.” He had learned 
comparatively little from his school-masters, who knew 
little themselves, and perhaps taught less. He was able 
to read, though with difficulty. Arithmetic was to him a 
thing unknown. He had not even learned to write. It 
was scarcely possible that he could have learned much in 
his boyhood, for he went to work when he was only six 
years old, 
An attempt was made to teach him writing while he was 
apprenticed to Begg, the drunken shoe-maker. He asked 
leave to attend a writing-school held in the evening. His 
master could not, or would not, understand the meaning of 
his request. ‘“ What!” said he, “learn to write! I sup- 
pose you will be asking to learn dancing next! What busi- 
ness have you with writing? Am I to be robbed of my 
time to enable you to learn to write?” Edward’s parents 
supported the application, and at last the master gave his 
consent. But there was always some work to do, or some- 
thing to finish and carry home to the master’s customers, so 
that Edward rarely attended the writing-school; and at the 
end of the quarter he knew very little more of penmanship - 
than he did at the beginning. 
Edward had to begin at the beginning with every thing. 
As we have already said, he knew next to nothing of books. 
He did not possess a single work on natural history. He 
