n begun to flow. But, to say nothing of the
"Scottish Chiefs," and "Thaddeus of Warsaw," over the pages of which,
doubtless, millions of youthful eyes have formerly shed copious tears,
we had Miss Edgeworth's writings, those of Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, the
novels of Charlotte Smith, the Memoirs of Baron Trenck, and, perused a
little stealthily, Peregrine Pickle and Roderick Random; and in poetry
Henry Kirke White and Montgomery were favorites; nor am I ashamed to say,
that Cottle's "Alfred" was read aloud at our fireside of evenings, with
an interest due to the story, perhaps, as much as to its poetical
ability. Original American productions were few; the importation of
new works from abroad was not large, and the demand for reprints a
good deal limited. But we had the well-known books of sterling value at
command, and our publishers occasionally favored us with new editions.
One of my early studies was Guthrie's Grammar of Geography, a
ponderous volume of English manufacture, which belonged in our family;
and I was fascinated with Pope at almost as early an age as that in
which he first "lisped in numbers." I see, by the way, that Forster, in
his Life of Dickens, quotes from a letter of Scott, in which he refers
to the scarcity of books at Edinburgh in his time.

In connection with this reference to our means of intellectual
cultivation, I am reminded of an incident illustrative of a faculty
commonly attributed to Yankees, that is New Englanders, though there is
reason to believe that some other parts of the country are quite as
liberally gifted with the qualities of "Yorkshire." It affords a striking
instance of shrewdness on the one side, and of lamentable deficiency of
it on the other. This was before the town had exchanged its original
simpler mode of regulating its municipal affairs for the form of a city
government. On a certain occasion the School Committee became
dissatisfied with the master of one of the higher schools, after a brief
trial of his qualities, and, as delicately as the subject permitted,
requested him to resign his place. The master was not a native of the
town, or of the "region round about," so that it was a mere question of
qualifications, real or otherwise, between himself and his employers. He
demurred, unless his salary were paid him for the unexpired considerable
part of the year for which he alleged himself to have been engaged; but
finally consented, if the chairman of the committee would o