“Circumstances similar to this have forced me into an acquaintance with many subjects, and I may truly say that almost all I know has been acquired in teaching others. For from the circumstance of my having, till within the last few years, found among those with whom I associated, few who were my equals, and scarcely any who were my superiors, I thought that, except my father and one or two other individuals, there were none whose acquirements would entitle them to a rank higher than my own. I was, therefore, satisfied with the progress I had made. But what was my disappointment when the increasing character of the school and other circumstances opened my way into a class of society among whom I found it was taken for granted that a man should be acquainted with Latin, and Greek, and French—languages of which I was profoundly ignorant, and the knowledge of which I foolishly thought was confined to a few. No one knows the pain which I have frequently felt when, in a company where I was but slightly known, the conversation has turned upon literary subjects, lest it should be discovered that I was unacquainted with that which no one seemed to take credit to himself for knowing, and to be ignorant of which appeared, therefore, to be so much the more disgraceful. With what shame have I sometimes declared my ignorance, rather than appear to understand that which I did not! What would I not give to become young again, and enter the school in its present state! I do not blame my father; he has been an excellent parent to us all. The difficulties he had to contend with in early life were such as to leave him but little time to attend to the education of his children. His whole efforts, together with my mother’s, were necessary to enable him to maintain us; and notwithstanding his talents are so great, he certainly is not acquainted with the modes of influencing others. System is what he likes as little as he understands. We cannot blame him for this; we may with as much justice blame a man because he is not six feet high. And I have often thought that the education which he gave us was more favourable to originality than if we had made great acquirements. Perhaps if I had been a good classical scholar I never should have invented the system of operating upon others which I have arranged. It is impossible to say how it would have been. I have often asked myself the question, Is it now too late to educate myself? I am afraid it is too late to do much. Ever since I was a child I have worked very hard; my time has always been very closely occupied in gaining a livelihood; and I now begin to feel the effects of so laborious a life. My memory is less tenacious than it was; and I find great difficulty in beginning a study to which I am not accustomed.