urther additional expense would be too heavy a burden upon my father's
means. It may be that this intention had already influenced and limited
my whole course of instruction; and probably only the little narrow
circle of future business aims had been considered; the eye had not
looked upon the boy as a future man. Possibly from this cause I was kept
so little to Latin; it was enough if I learnt, as our mode of expression
ran, to "state a _Casus_" (that is, to decline a noun). From my own
experience it was thus shown to me how eminently injurious it is in
education and in instruction to consider only a certain circle of future
activities or a certain rank in life. The wearisome old-fashioned
education _ad hoc_ (that is, for some one special purpose) has always
left many a noble power of man's nature unawakened.

A career in our country frequently chosen by the worthiest and most
anxious parents for their sons is that of a post in the Treasury and
Exchequer. Aspirants to such a post have two means of entering and two
starting-points in this career; either they become a clerk to one of the
minor officials in the Treasury or Exchequer, or the personal servant of
one of the highest officials. As my knowledge of writing and figures
seemed to my father satisfactory and sufficient for such a post, and as
he knew well that it might lead, not merely to a life free from
pecuniary cares, but even to wealth and fortune, he chose this career as
mine. But the minor Treasury official who might have found employment
for such a young man, showed various reasons why he could not or would
not as yet receive me as a clerk. There was something in my nature which
revolted against the second mode I have mentioned of entering this
career; something which I never afterwards experienced, but which at the
time absolutely prevented me from choosing such a mode of starting in
my future profession, and that in spite of the most alluring hopes that
were held out to me. My father meant well and honestly by me, but fate
ruled it against him. Strangely enough, it happened that in my later
capacity of schoolmaster, I became the educator and teacher of two of
the nephews of that very man into whose service my father had meant to
have sent me; and I hope to God that I have been of greater service to
that family by filling the heart and brain of these young people with
good and useful notions than if I had brushed the clothes and shoes of
their uncle, and spr