Chapter 5: my studies
As a love of study has been a leading influence in my life, I will here employ a little time, at the risk of some repetition, in tracing the way in which my thoughts had mostly tended up to the period when, after two years of deep depression, I suddenly turned to practical life with an eager desire to profit by its opportunities.From early days my dear mother noticed in me an introspective tendency, which led her to complain that when I went with her to friends' houses I appeared dreamy and little concerned with what was going on around me. My early education, received at home, interested me more than most of my school work. While one person devoted time and attention to me, I repaid the effort to my best ability. In the classes of my schooldays, the contact between teacher and pupil was less immediate. I shall always remember with pleasure Mrs. B.'s ‘Conversations’ on Chemistry, which I studied with great pleasure, albeit that I never saw one of the experiments therein described. I remember that Paley's ‘Evidences ’
