atched the volume from the shelf; and Mrs.
Porten, who indulged herself in moral and religious speculations, was
more prone to encourage than to check a curiosity above the strength of
a boy. This year (1748), the twelfth of my age, I shall note as the most
propitious to the growth of my intellectual stature.

The relics of my grandfather's fortune afforded a bare annuity for
his own maintenance; and his daughter, my worthy aunt, who had already
passed her fortieth year, was left destitute. Her noble spirit scorned a
life of obligation and dependence; and after revolving several schemes,
she preferred the humble industry of keeping a boarding-house for
Westminster-school, where she laboriously earned a competence for her
old age. This singular opportunity of blending the advantages of private
and public education decided my father. After the Christmas holidays
in January, 1749, I accompanied Mrs. Porten to her new house in
College-street; and was immediately entered in the school of which Dr.
John Nicoll was at that time head-master. At first I was alone: but my
aunt's resolution was praised; her character was esteemed; her friends
were numerous and active: in the course of some years she became the
mother of forty or fifty boys, for the most part of family and fortune;
and as her primitive habitation was too narrow, she built and occupied a
spacious mansion in Dean's Yard. I shall always be ready to join in
the common opinion that our public schools, which have produced so many
eminent characters, are the best adapted to the genius and constitution
of the English people. A boy of spirit may acquire a previous and
practical experience of the world; and his playfellows may be the future
friends of his heart or his interest. In a free intercourse with his
equals, the habits of truth, fortitude, and prudence will insensibly
be matured. Birth and riches are measured by the standard of personal
merit; and the mimic scene of a rebellion has displayed, in their
true colours, the ministers and patriots of the rising generation. Our
seminaries of learning do not exactly correspond with the precept of a
Spartan king, "that the child should be instructed in the arts, which
will be useful to the man;" since a finished scholar may emerge from
the head of Westminster or Eton, in total ignorance of the business and
conversation of English gentlemen in the latter end of the eighteenth
century. But these schools may assume the merit of t