COLLEGE LLFE. 



[Chap. II. 



first, day. At first, and more or less during the whole of my 

 first session, my liking or involuntary acknowledgment of 

 Philip's goodness was balanced, sometimes threatening to 

 topple over into dislike, by his assuming somewhat more with 

 me the character of guide and philosopher than friend. Totally 

 free himself from boyish mischief or youthful idleness, he im- 

 pressed my duties upon me more energetically than I could 

 well endure. When in his opinion I neglected my class work, 

 to boat or to stroll, as the spring evenings lengthened, I should 

 occasionally find my room ' turned up/ as it was called ; that 

 is to say, every movable thing — boots, books, tea-things, etc. 

 — arranged in some artful pattern on the floor. On my re- 

 monstrating against this unfriendly treatment, Philip replied 

 that 6 as I had so much time, it could not do me any harm to 

 put my things in their places again.' Still we were always 

 drawn together ; the kindness and purity of his mind one 

 could not help loving : and he must have taken an interest in 

 me, however oddly shown ; for while provoked by and resent- 

 ing this sort of management, I never for a moment doubted its 

 sincerity. From the beginning, he was always delighted to 

 speak of his father (especially), and of other members of his 

 family also ; and I never saw affection and veneration more 

 plainly marked than in his way of speaking of his parents. 

 Perhaps everything belonging to his family and home was 

 valued to a degree w T hich seemed somewhat exaggerated. I 

 well remember that the beauties of the West of England, and 

 of Bristol itself, were celebrated in paeans so exalted, that I at 

 the time firmly believed the whole to be utterly beyond the 

 fact ; and never till twenty years later, when I had lived long 

 on the Rhine and seen Switzerland, did I acknowledge the real 

 beauties of the Avon and Clifton Down. 



" He wished much to get us to work with him at the Sunday 

 school of St. Saviourgate Chapel ; but I helped, if at all, 

 very little and very irregularly. He persevered and made 

 friends with the family of Hopkinson, the precentor of the 

 chapel, two of whose sons * sung like cherubs in the boys' 



* He gave them lessons in thorough bass. In his second session, he 

 became the organist at the chapel. 



