eaching all that
they pretend to teach, the Latin and Greek languages: they deposit in
the hands of a disciple the keys of two valuable chests; nor can he
complain, if they are afterwards lost or neglected by his own fault. The
necessity of leading in equal ranks so many unequal powers of capacity
and application, will prolong to eight or ten years the juvenile
studies, which might be despatched in half that time by the skilful
master of a single pupil. Yet even the repetition of exercise and
discipline contributes to fix in a vacant mind the verbal science of
grammar and prosody: and the private or voluntary student, who possesses
the sense and spirit of the classics, may offend, by a false quantity,
the scrupulous ear of a well-flogged critic. For myself, I must be
content with a very small share of the civil and literary fruits of a
public school. In the space of two years (1749, 1750), interrupted by
danger and debility, I painfully climbed into the third form; and
my riper age was left to acquire the beauties of the Latin, and the
rudiments of the Greek tongue. Instead of audaciously mingling in the
sports, the quarrels, and the connections of our little world, I was
still cherished at home under the maternal wing of my aunt; and my
removal from Westminster long preceded the approach of manhood.

The violence and variety of my complaint, which had excused my frequent
absence from Westminster School, at length engaged Mrs. Porten, with
the advice of physicians, to conduct me to Bath: at the end of the
Michaelmas vacation (1750) she quitted me with reluctance, and I
remained several months under the care of a trusty maid-servant. A
strange nervous affection, which alternately contracted my legs, and
produced, without any visible symptoms, the most excruciating pain, was
ineffectually opposed by the various methods of bathing and pumping.
From Bath I was transported to Winchester, to the house of a physician;
and after the failure of his medical skill, we had again recourse to the
virtues of the Bath waters. During the intervals of these fits, I moved
with my father to Beriton and Putney; and a short unsuccessful trial
was attempted to renew my attendance at Westminster School. But my
infirmities could not be reconciled with the hours and discipline of a
public seminary; and instead of a domestic tutor, who might have watched
the favourable moments, and gently advanced the progress of my learning,
my father was too ea