refusal to
submit to discipline or restraint of any kind.

Hearn's memories of his youth were extremely vague. Referring to this
period of his life later, in Japan, he tells a pupil that, though some
of his relations were rich, none of them offered to pay to enable him to
finish his education; and though brought up in a luxurious home,
surrounded by western civilisation, he was obliged to educate himself in
spite of overwhelming difficulties, and in consequence of the neglect of
his relations, partly lost his sight, spent two years in bed, and was
forced to become a servant.

This is a remarkable case of Celtic rebellion against the despotism of
fact. He never was called upon to fill the duties of a servant until he
arrived in America. He never could have spent two years in bed, for
there are no two years unaccounted for, either at this time or later in
Cincinnati. It would not have suited the policy of those ruling his
destiny to leave him in a state of destitution. A certain allowance was
probably sent to Catherine Delaney, as later in Cincinnati to Mr.
Cullinane, sufficient for his keep and every-day expenses.

With a knowledge of Lafcadio's methods, we can imagine that any sum
given to him would probably have run through his fingers within the
first hour--his last farthing spent on the purchase of a book or curio
that fascinated him in a shop window. Thus he might find himself miles
away from home, obliged to obtain haphazard the means of supplying
himself with food and shelter. Absence of mind was characteristic of all
the Hearns, and unpunctuality, until he was drilled and disciplined by
official life in Japan, one of Lafcadio's conspicuous failings. We can
imagine the practical ex-parlourmaid keeping his meals waiting, during
the first period of his stay, and gradually, when she found that no
dependence could be placed on his movements, taking no further heed or
trouble, and paying no attention to his coming and going.

At various periods during the course of his life, Hearn indulged in the
experiment of working his brain at the expense of his body--sometimes to
the extent of seriously undermining his health, and having to submit to
the necessity of knocking off work until lost ground had been made up.
He held the opinion that the owner of pure "horse health" never
possessed the power of discerning "half lights." In its separation of
the spiritual from the physical portion of existence, severe sickness
was o