without ever making an erroneous one, and frequently winning the game.
His partiality to poetry, from almost his infancy, has been already
noticed: and it is to be added, that he was equally fond of reading and
_writing_ verses. One of his relatives has at this moment in her
possession a "Poem" from his pen, in pencilled _printed_ characters,
before he had learned, though he learned very early, to write, entitled,
"The Mariner's Return." Till very recently, also, the same lady
possessed another curious relic of this precocious child,--namely, a
prose story; the hero of which was a peasant boy, whom he took through
almost all the countries of Europe, and through many vicissitudes,
finally exalting him to the post of Prime Minister to Henry VIII. The
knowledge of geography and history displayed in this performance, is
declared by those who have read it, to be truly wonderful. Shortly after
he had reached his eighth year, he was sent to a school at Isleworth,
kept by a Dr. Greenlaw, and remained there four years. I have heard him
frequently describe his first arrival at the school, and several
incidents attending it, in such a manner as showed him then to have had
great shrewdness and keenness of observation. One, in particular, struck
me at the time as illustrative of his stern sense of right, and habits
of reflection, at that very early period. "I remember," said he, "that
soon after I had got to school, a big boy called me aside, and told me
very seriously that I must prepare for a terrible flogging on Saturday
morning, and that however well I behaved, it would signify nothing, for
it was an old custom at the school to flog a little boy on his first
Saturday, before the whole school, by way of example, and to make him
behave well. I was horribly frightened at this; but the first thing that
struck me, and kept me awake a good while thinking of it, was, how very
_unjust_ a thing it was to do this; and I thought so much of _this_,
that I do believe I was at length far more angry than frightened. Of
course, when Saturday came, I found it had been all a joke only; but I