Page:Letters of Life.djvu/224

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LETTERS OF LIFE.

gramme of a day. in school. Whither have I wandered? In this region of memory I am as a bee hovering over a parterre of flowers, not knowing where to alight. How can I pursue a straight course to the hive, so allured with their honeyed essence?

I think I have already said, that every hour we spent together had its allotted employment. To pass from one to the other promptly, and without loss of time, was numbered among the school virtues. Often, with no announcement save the turning of the hour glass, they changed books or implements, bent over the prescribed lesson, or rose to recitation with military precision. We all became attached to that primitive chronometer, as making visible by its gliding sands the swift transit of time.

I gave all the influence in my power to the simple, solid branches of culture, as the best basis for a rational education, and through that for a consistent character. To distinct, deliberate utterance both in reading and conversation, I attached great importance. They agreed with me, that to puzzle and disappoint others in their efforts to understand, was both unkind and unjust; and that, while they had the use of teeth, tongue, and œsophagus, they would not curtail, cheat, or swallow up any letter of the alphabet. The recitation of select passages of poetry was found a salutary exercise in the regulation of tone and emphasis. They devoted, at my request, much attention to the meaning of the sentences