Volume I Part 2 (2/2)

”You wereyour brother for the priesthood He had the es, where the educational systenorant as possible He was not even a Catholic”

Indeed his bitterness against the Ro like an obsession, aroused perhaps by inherited tendencies, by the essential character of his mind, and by those in authority over hireat an insistence, to revolt He was profoundly convinced that the Church, with its persistent otten his apostasy, nor failed to remind him of the fact fro shadow in the background of his whole life; to all remonstrance on the subject his only reply was, ”You don't know the Church as I do;” and several curious coincidences in crises of his career seemed to him to justify and confirm this belief

Of the course and character of his education but little is known He is said to have spent two years in a Jesuit college in the north of France, where he probably acquired his intiue He was also for a tie at Durhareatest ame known as ”The Giant's Stride” he was accidentally blinded in one eye by the knotted end of a rope suddenly released from the hand of one of his companions In consequence of this the work thrown upon the other eye by the enormous labours of his later years kept hi and reading he used a glass so large and heavy as to oblige him to have it nette, and for distant observation he carried a s telescope

[2] A cousin writes of hireat taste for drawing Very near-sighted, but so tender and careful of e where I was taken by rand-aunt (who had adopted hiin, which I refused to do He becaed me to tell him the reason of my refusal He always seemed very much in earnest, and to have a very sensitive nature”

A fellow-pupil at Ushaw says of hie, near Durha that we had so our favourite authors, which in Lafcadio's case were chiefly poets, though he also took considerable interest in books of travel and adventure Even then his style was reraceful expression He was of a very speculative turn of mind, and I have a lively recollection of the shock it occasioned to several of us when he one day announced his disbelief in the Bible I a as an _esprit fort_, for a few days afterwards, during a ith the class in the country, he returned to this subject in discussion with a master, and I inferred from what he said to me that he was quite satisfied with the evidences of the truth of the Scriptures It is interesting in connection with this to recall his subsequent adoption of Buddhism I am rather inclined to think that in either 1864 or 1865 Lafcadio devoted eneral literature than to his school studies, as (if my memory does not playinto 'Grafelloas one of his favourite poets, his beautiful i with peculiar force to a kindred soul He was fond of repeating scraps of poetry descriptive of heroic combats, feats of arms, or of the prowess of the Baresarks, or Berserkers, as described in Norse sagas He used to dith peculiar satisfaction on the line:--

'Like Thor's hae and dinted, was his horny hand'

Lafcadio was proud of his biceps, and on repeating this line he would bend his right arrasp the muscle with his left hand

I often addressed hiantic Muscle' After he went to America I had little communication with him beyond, I think, one letter We then drifted different ways He was a very lovable character, extreurereat,--was a source of perpetual distress He iusting and repugnant in consequence of the film that clouded the iris

This accident seems to have ended his career at Ushaw, for his name appears upon the rolls for 1865, when he was in his sixteenth year, and in a letter written in japan to one of his pupils, whoement because of an interruption of his studies caused by illness, he says:--

”A little bodily sickness o s and ruin theood at your studies, and mentally in sound health, and steady in your habits--three conditions which ought to ood eyes and a clear brain How many thousands fail for want of these?

”When I was a boy of sixteen, although my blood relations were--so to help me finish my education I had to become what you never have had to becoht I had two years of sickness in bed I had no one to help me And I had to educate ht up in a rich home, surrounded with every luxury of Western life

”So, my dear boy, do not lie there in your bed and fret, and try to persuade yourself that you are unfortunate”

This is the only light to be found upon those three dark years between his leaving Ushaw and his arrival in A the fanatic converts were not wanting those to widen the breach an fancies of the boy Her property, which he had been encouraged to look upon as his inheritance, was dribbling away in the hands of those whose only claiious convictions, and a few years after their separation her death put an end to any efforts at reconciliation and shohat great financial sacrifices she had made in the interests of her faith Some provision was made for him in her will, but he put forward no claims, and the property was found practically to have vanished

To what straits the boy was driven at this ti One of his companions at Ushaw says:--

”In 1866 I left Ushaw, and I am unable to recall nohether he was there at that time I had several letters fro the _peine forte et dure_ of direct penury in London In soed hie in the workhouse In a letter received fro in that dreadful place, he described the sights and sounds of horror which even then preferred the shade of night--of s thrown violently open, or shattered to pieces, shrieks of agony, or cries of e in the river”

The reference in the japanese letter mentioned above is the only one to be found in his correspondence, and in even the most intimate talk with friends he avoided reference to this period as one too painful for confidence Another fraguessed to refer to an experience of this cruel time

”I take off my clothes,--few and thin,--and roll them up into a bundle, to serve me for a pillow: then I creep naked into the hay Oh, the delight of ht!--oh, the pleasure of the sense of rest! The sweet scent of the hay! Overhead, through a skylight, I see stars--sharply shi+ning: there is frost in the air

”The horses, below, stir heavily at moments, and paw I hear them breathe; and their breath coreat bodies fills the building, penetrates the hay, quickens my blood;--their life is my fire

”So contentedly they breathe! Theyin their hay But they do not rateful Grateful, too, for the warmth of their breath, the warrateful even for those stirrings which they e dumb tolerant companionshi+p I wish I could tell them how thankful I am,--how much I like them,--what pleasure I feel in the power that proceeds froh the silence, like a large warm Soul

”It is better that they cannot understand For they earn their good food and lodging;--they earn the care that keeps thelossy and beautiful;--they are of use in the world And of what use in the world a stars are suns,--enorht to multitudes unthinkable of other worlds In some of those other worlds therehorses, and stables for thes--so in the hay I know that there are a hundred millions of suns The horses do not know But, nevertheless, they are worth, I have been told, fifteen hundred dollars each: they are superior beings! How much am I worth?