o more able than the
naked trees to withstand the winter's grip. I do not know what his age
was but he clearly looked older than his years. Some days in the course
of our lessons he would suddenly be at a loss for some word and look
vacant and ashamed. His people at home counted him a crank. He had
become possessed of a theory. He believed that in each age some one
dominant idea is manifested in every human society in all parts of the
world; and though it may take different shapes under different degrees
of civilisation, it is at bottom one and the same; nor is such idea
taken from one by another by any process of adoption, for this truth
holds good even where there is no intercourse. His great preoccupation
was the gathering and recording of facts to prove this theory. And while
so engaged his home lacked food, his body clothes. His daughters had but
scant respect for his theory and were perhaps constantly upbraiding him
for his infatuation. Some days one could see from his face that he had
lighted upon some new proof, and that his thesis had correspondingly
advanced. On these occasions I would broach the subject, and wax
enthusiastic at his enthusiasm. On other days he would be steeped in
gloom, as if his burden was too heavy to bear. Then would our lessons
halt at every step; his eyes wander away into empty space; and his mind
refuse to be dragged into the pages of the first Latin Grammar. I felt
keenly for the poor body-starved theory-burdened soul, and though I was
under no delusion as to the assistance I got in my Latin, I could not
make up my mind to get rid of him. This pretence of learning Latin
lasted as long as I was at these lodgings. When on the eve of leaving
them I offered to settle his dues he said piteously: "I have done
nothing, and only wasted your time, I cannot accept any payment from
you." It was with great difficulty that I got him at last to take his
fees.

Though my Latin tutor had never ventured to trouble me with the proofs
of his theory, yet up to this day I do not disbelieve it. I am convinced
that the minds of men are connected through some deep-lying continuous
medium, and that a disturbance in one part is by it secretly
communicated to others.

Mr. Palit next placed me in the house of a coach named Barker. He used
to lodge and prepare students for their examinations. Except his mild
little wife there was not a thing with any pretensions to attractiveness
about this household. One can un