choolmaster, to induce them to examine carefully and patiently into
every detail of the establishment, or they may become a party to a
series of cruelties, that may break the spirit, and, perhaps, shorten
the life of their children. Unfortunately, the most promising minds are
those that soonest yield to the effect of harsh discipline. The
phlegmatic, the dull, and the commonplace vegetate easily through this
state of probation. The blight that will destroy the rose, passes ever
harmlessly over the tough and earth-embracing weed.

I stayed at Mr Root's school for very nearly three years, and I shall
divide that memorable period into three distinct epochs--the desponding,
the devotional, and the mendacious. After I had been flogged into
uncertain health, I was confined, for at least six weeks, to my room,
and, when I was convalescent, it was hinted by the surgeon, in not
unintelligible terms, to Mr Root, that if I did not experience the
gentlest treatment, I might lose my life; which would have been very
immaterial to Mr Root, had it not been a mathematical certainty that he
would lose a good scholar at the same time. By-the-by, the meaning that
a schoolmaster attaches to the words "good scholar," is one for whom he
is paid well. Thus I was emphatically a good scholar; no doubt his very
best. I was taught everything--at least his bill said so. He provided
everything for me, and I stayed with him during the holidays. He,
therefore, ceased to confer upon me his cruel attentions; and abandoned
me to a neglect hardly less cruel. The boys were strictly enjoined to
leave me alone, and they obeyed. I found a solitude in the midst of
society.

A loneliness came over my young spirit. I was aweary, and I drooped
like the tired bird, that alights on the ship, "far, far at sea." As
that poor bird folds its wings, and sinks into peaceful oblivion, I
could have folded my arms and have lain down to die with pleasure. My
heart exhausted itself with an intense longing for a companion to love.
It wasted away all its substance in flinging out fibres to catch hold of
that with which it might beat in unison. As turn the tendrils of the
vine hither and thither to clasp something to adorn, and to repay
support by beauty, so I wore out my young energies in a fruitless search
for sympathy. I had nothing to love me, though I would have loved many
if I had dared. There were many sweet faces among my school-fellows, to
which I turn