mily prayers in November 1830,
when the ceremony struck him as 'funny,' but he soon became interested
and was taught to pray for himself. In 1832 his elder brother has
nicknamed him the 'little preacher,' from his love of virtuous
admonitions. In 1834 he confides to his mother that he has invented a
prayer for himself which is 'not, you know, a childish sort of
invention'; and in 1835 he explains that he has followed the advice
given in a sermon (he very carefully points out that it was only
_advice_, not an order) to pray regularly. Avowals of this kind,
however, have to be elicited from him by delicate maternal questioning.
He is markedly averse to any display of feeling. 'You should keep your
love locked up as I do' is a characteristic remark at the age of four to
his eldest brother. The effect of the religious training is apparently
perceptible in a great tendency to self-analysis. His thoughts sometimes
turn to other problems;--in October, 1835, for example, he asks the
question which has occurred to so many thoughtful children,'How do we
know that the world is not a dream?'--but he is chiefly interested in
his own motives. He complains in January 1834 that he has naughty
thoughts. His father tells him to send them away without even thinking
about them. He takes the advice, but afterwards explains that he is so
proud of sending them away that he 'wants to get them that he may send
them away.' He objects to a reward for being good, because it will make
him do right from a wrong motive. He shrinks from compliments. In
October 1835 he leaves a room where some carpenters were at work because
they had said something which he was sorry to have heard. They had said,
as it appeared upon anxious inquiry, that he would make a good
carpenter, and he felt that he was being cajoled. He remarks that even
pleasures become painful when they are ordered, and explains why his
sixth birthday was disappointing; he had expected too much.

His thoughtfulness took shapes which made him at times anything but easy
to manage. He could be intensely obstinate. The first conflict with
authority took place on June 28, 1831, when he resolutely declared that
he would not say the 'Busy Bee.' This event became famous in the
nursery, for in September 1834 he has to express contrition for having
in play used the words 'By the busy bee' as an infantile equivalent to
an oath. One difficulty was that he declined to repeat what was put into
his mouth, or