Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III MY FATHER IN HIS HOME ' He that claims, either for himself or for another, the honours of perfection, will surely injure the reputation he designs to assist.'—Johnson. ' Friends, as Professor Jowett said, always think it necessary (except Boswell, that great genius) to tell lies about their deceased friends; they leave out all their faults lest the public should exaggerate them. But we want to know their faults—that is probably the most interesting part of them.'—Max Muller. I was born on May 28, 1838. It appears that, very shortly after my birth, my eyesight was found to be extremely defective. One result of this lifelong infirmity should here be mentioned. In my Recollections of Mark Pattison it is suggested that a tendency to take life too seriously is generally discernible in those who, like him, have a retentive memory, a strong logical faculty, and weak nerves. In my own case this evil was aggravated by my near-sightedness, which, cutting me off from many sources of interest and recreation, threw me upon myself, and made me abnormally introspective. Hence it was that the terrific creed of Calvinism, in which my father said that he found a constant and overflowing wellspring of happiness, brought to me unrest and vexation. Naturally enough, the line which, as time went on, I began to take on these subjects filled him with surprise as well as with indignation. Scarcely less surprised and indignant would he have been if he hadheard of the dogmatic thunderbolt of Archbishop Whately : ' The God of the Calvinists is the devil with " God " written on his forehead.' At this point I must needs speak of my father more definitely as a spiritual pastor and master. And if in doing so I bring out the Richelieu rather than the Coverley side of his character, well, ...