with no parapet on one side,
I walked off and fell to the ground, but the height was only seven or
eight feet. Nevertheless the number of thoughts which passed through my
mind during this very short, but sudden and wholly unexpected fall, was
astonishing, and seem hardly compatible with what physiologists have, I
believe, proved about each thought requiring quite an appreciable amount
of time.
Nothing could have been worse for the development of my mind than
Dr. Butler's school, as it was strictly classical, nothing else being
taught, except a little ancient geography and history. The school as a
means of education to me was simply a blank. During my whole life I have
been singularly incapable of mastering any language. Especial attention
was paid to verse-making, and this I could never do well. I had many
friends, and got together a good collection of old verses, which by
patching together, sometimes aided by other boys, I could work into any
subject. Much attention was paid to learning by heart the lessons of the
previous day; this I could effect with great facility, learning forty or
fifty lines of Virgil or Homer, whilst I was in morning chapel; but
this exercise was utterly useless, for every verse was forgotten
in forty-eight hours. I was not idle, and with the exception of
versification, generally worked conscientiously at my classics, not
using cribs. The sole pleasure I ever received from such studies, was
from some of the odes of Horace, which I admired greatly.
When I left the school I was for my age neither high nor low in it; and
I believe that I was considered by all my masters and by my father as a
very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard in intellect. To my
deep mortification my father once said to me, "You care for nothing but
shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself
and all your family." But my father, who was the kindest man I ever
knew and whose memory I love with all my heart, must have been angry and
somewhat unjust when he used such words.
Looking back as well as I can at my character during my school life, the
only qualities which at this period promised well for the future,
were, that I had strong and diversified tastes, much zeal for whatever
interested me, and a keen pleasure in understanding any complex subject
or thing. I was taught Euclid by a private tutor, and I distinctly
remember the intense satisfaction which the clear geometrical proofs
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