to the conversation of my father and his friends.
He had always been a man of leisure and was acquainted with many
of the interesting and celebrated people of the day, both in England
and on the Continent. I was devoted to him, and whenever he guided
my character he did so with the greatest judgment. He taught me
above all things the need of self-control, and never to make a remark
of a fellow-creature unless I had something pleasant or kind to say.
There was no subject upon which he was unread; and when my
brothers, who were both exceedingly clever, returned from college
and the University, wonderful and brilliant were the discussions that
went on. Both my parents were of Huguenot descent, belonging to
the old French noblesse. I think the Latin blood had sharpened their
brains, and certainly gave an extra zest to life.

My father was a great believer in heredity, and the following
personal experience may show him somewhat justified in his belief.
In quite early childhood I commenced to feel a preference for the
_left_ side of my body: I washed, dried, and dressed the left side
first; I preserved it carefully from all harm; I kept it warm. I was,
comparatively speaking, totally indifferent to my right side.

As I grew older I observed that the place of honour was upon the
right-hand side: I understood that God had made the world and ruled
it with His right hand! I was wrong, then, in preferring my left hand.
I determined to change over. It was very difficult to do: so deep was
the instinct that it took me some years to eradicate the love for my
left side and transfer it to my right, and when I had at last
accomplished it I was still liable to go back to my first preference.
No one ever detected my peculiarity.

I was already eighteen or nineteen years old when one day I entered
my father's room, ready dressed to go out. I had on both my gloves.
Suddenly I remembered that I had put on my left glove first.
Immediately I took off both my gloves--then I replaced the right one,
and then the left. My father was watching me and asked me for an
explanation. I gave it him, and he looked very grave, almost alarmed.
After a moment of silence he said, "I want you to give that habit up--I
want you to break yourself of it immediately. I had it myself as a
youth: it took me years to conquer. No one should permit himself to
be the slave of _any_ habit."

I asked him which side he had loved. "The _left_ side," he said. At
five-an