I do not recall the application of the square ruler on any other occasions. Of all the implements designed, by application, for the culture of virtue I prefer the slipper.
My father said that it was impossible to disbelieve in a Providence, in that it had furnished boys with a portion of their person not covering any important nervous ganglions, nor harbouring arteries, but overspread with a dainty tissue of nerves, rendering it sensitive to pain, and to which chastisement might be administered without danger. My father remarked that Providence had provided a vibratory drum to the ear to arrest sound, which was conveyed to the brain by a special nerve; so had Providence furnished man with a bulbosity to act as the special organ of Morality: he considered that a very convincing Bridgewater Treatise might be written on this theme, for it gave evidence of Design, and design with a Purpose, and that purpose was the inculcation of Virtue. Every organ that a human being possessed had its special purpose: one provided that he should see, another that he should hear, a third that he should smell, and a fourth that he should taste; and all these organs conduced to, and were intended to conduce to, his well-being. So was he supplied with a drum-like organ to ensure that he should be Good. Every spanking he received was an inculcation of Morality. Just as a hyacinth springs out of a tuber, and fills the room with fragrance and the eye with delight, so does this tuber in the human system, if properly treated, throw up the flower of Virtue.
My father had a philosophic mind, and although in poetry he appreciated only Crabbe, yet the above observation shows that he was not destitute of an imaginative vein.
Under the impression that my lungs were affected, and that it was advisable to remove to a warmer climate, as already said, my father resolved to go to the South of France, to the equable temperature of Pau, where the north winds blow over the town drawn to the great Sahara, and leave the air still in the valley of the Gave. Often have I seen the clouds flying overhead, whereas at Pau the air was unruffled.
I will here subjoin some little account of my Uncle William, and of my Aunts Harriet, Emily and Margaret. I have described my Uncle Alexander elsewhere.
My Uncle William was also in the service of John Company
