the absence of the chaplains who in those days would have as many as
six services a day. In civil life in Montreal he went to church in the
evening, and sat under the Reverend James Barclay of St. Pauls, now
designated by some at least as St. Andrews.

VIII. The Civil Years

It will be observed in this long relation of John McCrae that little
mention has yet been made of what after all was his main concern in
life. For twenty years he studied and practised medicine. To the end
he was an assiduous student and a very profound practitioner. He was
a student, not of medicine alone, but of all subjects ancillary to
the science, and to the task he came with a mind braced by a sound and
generous education. Any education of real value a man must have received
before he has attained to the age of seven years. Indeed he may be left
impervious to its influence at seven weeks. John McCrae's education
began well. It began in the time of his two grandfathers at least, was
continued by his father and mother before he came upon this world's
scene, and by them was left deep founded for him to build upon.

Noble natures have a repugnance from work. Manual labour is servitude.
A day of idleness is a holy day. For those whose means do not permit
to live in idleness the school is the only refuge; but they must prove
their quality. This is the goal which drives many Scotch boys to the
University, scorning delights and willing to live long, mind-laborious
days.

John McCrae's father felt bound "to give the boy a chance," but the boy
must pass the test. The test in such cases is the Shorter Catechism,
that compendium of all intellectual argument. How the faithful aspirant
for the school acquires this body of written knowledge at a time when
he has not yet learned the use of letters is a secret not to be lightly
disclosed. It may indeed be that already his education is complete. Upon
the little book is always printed the table of multiples, so that the
obvious truth which is comprised in the statement, "two by two makes
four", is imputed to the contents which are within the cover. In
studying the table the catechism is learned surreptitiously, and
therefore without self-consciousness.

So, in this well ordered family with its atmosphere of obedience, we
may see the boy, like a youthful Socrates going about with a copy of the
book in his hand, enquiring of those, who could already read, not alone
what were the answers to the quest