228 EARLY REMINISCENCES and bade us concentrate our minds upon those we held for ten minutes in hushed silence, and in abstraction from everything else, after which, said he, your wills shall become subject to mine. I accepted a disc, but had no intention of subjecting my volition to that of a contemptible Yankee snob, and, accordingly was not a good subject for him to experiment upon. The period of abstraction and contemplation having elapsed, we were called up upon the platform, and the fellow made passes with his hands over our heads and breasts. On me these produced no effect whatever. There was, however, on the platform as well as myself, one of our religious confraternity, a burly Cheshireman, named Brundritt, a man of good means, but imperfectly educated. He came from a district reeking with Geneva, and from a parish rank with so-called Evangelicalism. The result had been alienation from Protestantism as he had seen and smelt it from childhood, but he was without definite guidance in Church principles. He was a generous, warm-hearted man, very susceptible to external influences. The lecturer placed me, slim as a stalk of seakale, over against this sturdy and stout man and bade me with my fist knock him down. " But you can't do it," said Mr. Fish, " because I forbid it. You cannot even touch him." I did not hit him, though I made semblance of lunging at his face ; not because the lecturer willed that I should not, but because I was warmly attached to Brundritt. Unlike myself, Brundritt was as wax in the operator's hands. He, and one other of our society, went over to Rome directly after taking their B.A. degree. I wrote to Brundritt a letter rather strongly couched, in expostulation. He replied : " It is useless planting cut flowers. It is labour lost to endeavour to convert a bit of waste covered with chick-weed into a rose garden." " Nous verrons" was my reply. " The future will tell whether spade and rake will produce any result. I shall not cast aside my garden tools." And now that over half a century has elapsed since we entered into that correspondence, I can see, looking round me, on all sides, that I judged aright: the chick-weeds no longer hold the mastery, roses abound. I can see them everywhere, and the air is full of their fragrance.
