fretted when the hour of teaching came. My parents were not long in
perceiving this although I did not complain. They told me it was for
my good that I should go to school, and I thoroughly believed them.
Yet I could not understand why it should be associated with so much
dislike and pain on my part, when my first school,--the beautiful
world of nature, had been so lovely, and my first teachers had always
increased the delight by removing my difficulties, and this so much
so that I now longed for evening to come to have fresh light and
instruction given. My father now decided that I should not go to
school, and he became my teacher as before, the world being my great
book. I was delighted with Robinson Crusoe, and this work became my
companion, and to which was added the Pilgrim's Progress. After these,
my great favourite was Buffon's Natural History. I used to go alone,
taking a volume at a time, to read amidst the pleasant country around,
but most frequently in the quiet nooks and retreats of Hornsey Wood.
It seems, however, that I was always watched and superintended by my
mother during these readings and rural rambles, for whenever danger
was near she generally appeared, but seldom otherwise, so that I had
perfect freedom in these matters. I have every reason to believe that
the first seven years of my life laid the basis of all I know that is
worth knowing, and led to the formation of my character and future
career in life. Of my schooling afterwards it is unnecessary to say
much, as it was the usual routine such as others had, but it never
satisfied me, and I even then saw errors throughout the whole, and
this strengthened my first impressions, and tended to mature the
after-thought in me, that something wanted doing and _must be done_.
It is not my intention in this introductory chapter to write an
auto-biography; but my object is simply to show, how one impression
followed another in my case, and what led to it; to point out briefly
the various plans and inventions I had recourse to in carrying out my