a time, but
Harrington went to old Mr. Vince to say that he felt he was dishonest
in taking his money, for "Charles ought to take my place and teach
me."

Upon leaving school, Charles was duly bound apprentice to Messrs.
Mason and Jackson, where he was taught by his father. Without
indentures of apprenticeship in those days, an artificer had no status
in his trade; yet it would seem, in this case, that the "binding" was
regarded by each party as little more than a necessary formality, for
the youth did not spend the whole of his time in the service of his
nominal employers. He was always with his father, and Sir George
Barlow took a great fancy to him. He worked on at his trade, however,
for some years, and only left the workman's bench to assume the
vocation of a teacher.

His parents were members of the Congregational Chapel in the place,
and their son was a constant attendant at the Sunday school, first
as a scholar and afterwards as a teacher. When he was about 17 or 18
years of age, one of his relatives, and the then master of the British
School in the place, conceived the idea of establishing a Mechanics'
Institute. Vince joined the movement with ardour, and the little
institution was soon an accomplished fact. A grammar class, to which
Vince attached himself, was very popular among the young men of the
town, and they soon after established a debating club. Here the latent
talents in Vince developed themselves. He became a fluent speaker,
and was soon asked to deliver a lecture. Being half a poet himself, he
chose Poetry as his topic, and seems to have given himself up to the
preparation of his subject with a determination to succeed. One of his
old I companions (whose towering head, by the way, would be a splendid
artist's "study" for an apostle) told me that at this time they read
together "Paradise Lost," a great part of which he said he could
still repeat from memory. Vince used to declaim aloud the "bits" that
pleased him, and "he was never tired" of the passage in the tenth
book, where the poet, describing the change which followed the Fall,
says--

"Some say He bid His angels turn askance
The poles of Earth some ten degrees or more
From the sun's axle; they with labour pushed
Oblique the centric globe,...
...to bring in change
Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring
Perpetual smiled on Earth with verdant flowers,
Equal in days and nights."

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