and, in the end, was allowed to come home and play at soldiers.
It was Edison's unsympathetic schoolmistress who told his mother: "This boy's brain is addled, we can do nothing with him." He had given one of his companions a seidlitz powder to find out whether the gas would lift up his patient into the air! Mrs. Edison was wise enough to take the boy's education into her own hands, proving herself "the loveliest and most wonderful teacher on God's earth," as he afterwards declared.
As the Pasha's mother did not approve of soldiering, the boy simply took himself off to a military college, passed the examinations with distinction, and then proudly confronted her with all his certificates! He was both hard-working and intelligent, devoted to French and mathematics.
But even as a schoolboy his country's suffering must have eaten into his ardent imagination. I was told that he would spend hours of recreation in making speeches and organising a committee, to protest against the tyranny of Abdul Hamid. Already he felt that an army was not enough to save his country, and persuaded some of his schoolfellows to study politics, sowing the seed of all he has since given to the world.
From the beginning he determined, above all, to make himself master of every detail concerning the French Revolution; to understand, by understanding "the people," why it happened and how it happened, what mistakes were made, the real ideals that inspired its passion of sacrifice, and the permanent gains it brought to France and to mankind.
Long after all his companions were fast asleep, the young Mustapha dived into every possible book he could lay hands on, to clear up this fascinating subject. Next morning he would hold forth to all and sundry upon his discoveries, and finally issued a paper with exemplary regularity, which was widely circulated in manuscript.
Meanwhile military studies had not been neglected;
