e result of his original inquest. The pillars of Hercules, upon
which rested the vast edifice of his scorn, were these two--1st, my
physics; he denounced me for effeminacy: 2d, he assumed, and even
postulated as a _datum_, which I myself could never have the face to
refuse, my general idiocy. Physically, therefore, and intellectually, he
looked upon me as below notice; but, _morally_, he assured me that he
would give me a written character of the very best description, whenever
I chose to apply for it. "You're honest," he said; "you're willing,
though lazy; you _would_ pull, if you had the strength of a flea; and,
though a monstrous coward, you don't run away." My own demurs to these
harsh judgments were not many. The idiocy I confessed; because, though
positive that I was not uniformly an idiot, I felt inclined to think
that, in a majority of cases, I really _was_; and there were more
reasons for thinking so than the reader is yet aware of. But, as to the
effeminacy, I denied it _in toto_, and with good reason, as will be
seen. Neither did my brother pretend to have any experimental proofs of
it. The ground he went upon was a mere _a priori_ one, viz., that I had
always been tied to the apron-string of women or girls; which amounted
at most to this: that, by training and the natural tendency of
circumstances, I _ought_ to be effeminate--that is, there was reason to
expect beforehand that I _should_ be so; but, then, the more merit in
me, if, in spite of such general presumptions, I really were _not_. In
fact, my brother soon learned better than any body, and by a daily
experience, how entirely he might depend upon me for carrying out the
most audacious of his own warlike plans; such plans, it is true, that I
abominated; but _that_ made no difference in the fidelity with which I
tried to fulfill them.

This eldest brother of mine, to pass from my own character to his, was
in all respects a remarkable boy. Haughty he was, aspiring, immeasurably
active; fertile in resources as Robinson Crusoe; but also full of
quarrel as it is possible to imagine; and, in default of any other
opponent, he would have fastened a quarrel upon his own shadow for
presuming to run before him when going westward in the morning, whereas,
in all reason, a shadow, like a dutiful child, ought to keep
deferentially in the rear of that majestic substance which is the author
of its existence. Books he detested, one and all, excepting only those
which h