They (the masters) were not cruel-hearted men; to make ears
tingle, bones ache, life generally a burden and a misery, was no extreme
pleasure to them. Small specimens of humanity leaping and dancing,
and wringing their hands, and shrieking as if engaged in the worship of
some Baal who perchance slept, and must needs be awakened, could
scarcely have been agreeable objects of contemplation; but they knew
not of any other method in which instruction might possibly be im-
parted.... To shew how completely we lay at the mercy of the head-
master, I perhaps ought to state that we generally sat when "up" to
him upon one long form, opposite to which stood a chair, on which was
seated the particular boy who was "going on." Our master adopted for
himself the peripatetic, or, more strictly perhaps, the ana- or kata-
patetic method; his beat was immediately in front of the form on which
we sat, so that he could get at the centre class as he paced up and
down. He very frequently availed himself of his opportunities; and
with the masterly dexterity and quickness which distinguished him,
often succeeded in "touching up" each one of us in the course of a
single promenade. But most pitiable was the position of the poor boy
on the chair on the other side of the master's line of walk. That chair
was a sort of altar on which boy-sacrifices were offered. There the
youth sat, exposed on every side to the blast of blows and boxes that
might descend on him at any moment, which were sure to descend upon
him sooner or later in a hideous hurricane.

He who has the power of speaking of the spiritual world, speaks in
a simple manner of a high matter. He speaks of life and death, and
the things after death. He lifts the veil, but the form behind it is
shrouded in deeper obscurity. He raises the cloud, but he darkens the

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