34° EARLY REMINISCENCES We were ordained in the chapel of the palace, robed in black gowns, no cassocks, on Whit-Sunday, 1864, and the Bishop prosed to us on the text, " Thy word is Truth." He assured us that all Scripture, including, of course, the sensuous Song of Solomon, was absolutely true, and every word inspired by the Spirit of God, and that every statement in Scripture was sure, whatever Science might say to the contrary. With my Ordination I closed the first chapter of my life ; and therefore for a while I will leave the tale. In that period described before I was ordained, I had formed my opinions, and I have never since altered them to the right hand or to the left. In writing the reminiscences of one's youth, I describe the shaping of opinions and character, much as might a barn-door fowl write concerning the way in which it had pecked a hole in its egg-shell when hatching, and had then come out a fluffy chicken, very cold, and had sheltered under its mother's wing, almost killed by a shower ; how it had grown feathers, had moulted, had the pip, had run about the farm-yard and cowered before the hawk swaying overhead. Every one has gone through the stages of growth ; and every one looks back on the past, with very various feelings. I was struck and shocked with what Mr. Walter Besant says of Richard Jefferies when dying : " The writer—he was a dying man— sings his song of lament because the past is past—and dead. All that is past, and that we shall never see again, it is dead. The brook that used to leap and run and chatter—it is dead. The trees that used to put on new leaves every spring—they are dead. All is dead and swept away, hamlet and cottage, hillside and coppice, field and hedge." This is a feeling to me incomprehensible. How different was that of Frank Buckland, another ardent naturalist, when on his death-bed he said : " God has so loved and provided for the little fishes, that I am sure He will love and provide for me who have lived and laboured for their preservation ? " It appears to me that the retrospect affords encouragement for the prospect. One can see the unfolding of powers, the acquisition of experience, the formation and the modification of many opinions, the strengthening of others, the shaping of character, without any desire to go to school again. When I was a boy I
