books. Often he would borrow a book in the evening, and then sit up
nearly all night reading it so as to return it in the morning.

When the owners of books found that he always returned them soon and
clean, they were very willing to lend him whatever he wished.

He was about fourteen years of age when he began to study how to write
clearly and correctly. He afterwards told how he did this. He said:

"About this time I met with an odd volume of the _Spectator_. I had
never before seen any of them.

"I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it.

"I thought the writing excellent, and wished if possible to imitate it.

"With that view, I took some of the papers, and making short hints of
the sentiments in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then,
without looking at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by
expressing each hinted sentiment at length and as fully as it had been
expressed before, in any suitable words that should occur to me.

"Then I compared my _Spectator_ with the original, discovered some of my
faults and corrected them.

"But I found that I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in
recollecting and using them.

"Therefore, I took some of the tales in the _Spectator_ and turned them
into verse; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the