Here he had little enough of mental discipline, or that deliberate
training of character which is a leading object of modern education. On
the contrary, what he learnt was a knowledge of undisciplined human
nature.]

My regular school training [he tells us], was of the briefest, perhaps
fortunately; for though my way of life has made me acquainted with all
sorts and conditions of men, from the highest to the lowest, I
deliberately affirm that the society I fell into at school was the worst
I have ever known. We boys were average lads, with much the same
inherent capacity for good and evil as any others; but the people who
were set over us cared about as much for our intellectual and moral
welfare as if they were baby-farmers. We were left to the operation of
the struggle for existence among ourselves; bullying was the least of
the ill practices current among us. Almost the only cheerful
reminiscence in connection with the place which arises in my mind is
that of a battle I had with one of my classmates, who had bullied me
until I could stand it no longer. I was a very slight lad, but there was
a wild-cat element in me which, when roused, made up for lack of weight,
and I licked my adversary effectually. However, one of my first
experiences of the extremely rough-and-ready nature of justice, as
exhibited by the course of things in general, arose out of the fact that
I--the victor--had a black eye, while he--the vanquished--had none, so
that I got into disgrace and he did not. We made it up, and thereafter I
was unmolested. One of the greatest shocks I ever received in my life
was to be told a dozen years afterwards by the groom who brought me my
horse in a stable-yard in Sydney that he was my quondam antagonist. He
had a long story of family misfortune to account for his position; but
at that time it was necessary to deal very cautiously with mysterious
strangers in New South Wales, and on inquiry I found that the