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 RICHMOND. ETAT 18-22. 1865-1869 " What's in the scroll," quoth he, " thou keepest furled ? Show me their shaping, Theirs who most studied man, the bard and sage,— Give ! "—So, he gowned him. A Grammarian's Funeral, BROWNING. My father entered Richmond College under favourable auspices. Though only eighteen years of age (and looking even younger than his years), he had acquitted himself with distinction in the final examination. The youngest save one, he ranked second out of a hundred and forty-six candidates. He had impressed his fellow-candidates even more than the examiners at Westminster. The singular lightness of his attire and demeanour impressed men who were dejected by an ordeal which apparently occasioned him scarcely a qualm. He wore a straw hat and a blue coat, and expressed himself with much freedom and vivacity, chaffing his companions, and incessantly informing them, as was his habit, of much that they might be interested to know. One of them, after the mauvais quart d'heure with the examiners, remarked to my father, "If it is the will of God, I shall enter College this autumn." My father could not repress a smile. "If you have passed your examination, my dear fellow," he corrected. If a fellow had not the brains to pass his examination it was not likely that God Almighty or any one else could help him. But years afterwards he confessed to this young man, who was a true and esteemed friend of his in later life, that his views of Divine Providence had strangely altered since then, and that God was as much to be consulted in the passing of an examination as anything else. 1 Rev. W. D. Walters. He was fortunate, moreover, in entering the College when the staff was very able. The Rev. Alfred Barrett, the governor, was a man of true cu...