" So much were people in the
habit of praising him, that it carried my thoughts back to my Latin
Grammar, and the quotation from Terence:--
Omnes omnia
Bona dicere et laudare fortunas meas,
Qui gnatum haberem tali ingenio praeditum.
For himself, he was perpetually lamenting to me that at school
he had not received more mathematical instruction; that the time
spent in classics exclusively, was, for many, time thrown away. But
I must do his late master the justice of saying, that when he first
received him under his tuition, he showed little fondness for
mathematics in general, although he had a taste for algebra. The
two following letters, to his brother and mother, bearing the same
date, in the spring of 1858, were despatched from the out-station
where he was engaged in a survey.
St. Arnaud, April 10th, 1858.
DEAR CHARLEY,
I do not think you have written a letter to me since we have been
out here. It gave me much pleasure to see yours to the Doctor. I
wish you could be here, instead of working for 40 or 50 pounds a
year at home, out of which you can save very little. Here you might
be getting at least 100 pounds, and nothing to find yourself but
clothes.
Pages:
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60