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his early days at Brentford and Eton had a great effect upon his character, emphasizing what was noble in his nature, and developing certain traits which, without being either good or evil in themselves, were later in his life to cause both him and his friends real distress. He was not, however, invariably unhappy. His delight in the humblest aspects of nature, his romances and favourite books, his day-dreams, brought him much relief and pleasure; and it was with real joy he received letters from home, especially from the little sisters whom he so loved. Still, the memory of those early days was always for him full of painful reminiscence. A touching record of his boyish sufferings is to be found in the dedicatory prelude to "Laon and Cythna" (more widely known as "The Revolt of Islam"), written years later when the poet was smarting under cruel suffering inflicted upon him by Governmental interference with his rights as a father. Lady Shelley and one or two other biographers have supposed that the famous stanzas in question were written by Shelley reminiscently of his life at Eton, but it seems almost certain that they have reference to his first bitter experiences at Sion House.

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Thoughts of great deeds were mine, dear friend, when first
The clouds which wrap this world from youth did pass.

I do remember well the hour which burst

My spirit's sleep: a fresh May dawn it was,
When I walked forth upon the glittering grass,
And wept, I knew not why; until there rose
From the near schoolroom voices that, alas!
Were but one echo from a world of woes-
The harsh and grating strife of tyrants and of foes.

And then I clasped my hands and looked around
But none was near to mock my streaming eyes,
Which poured their warm drops on the sunny ground:
So, without shame, I spake: "I will be wise,
And just, and free, and mild, if in me lies
Such power; for I grow weary to behold

The selfish and the strong still tyrannize

Without reproach or check." I then controlled

My tears; my heart grew calm; and I was meek and bold.

And from that hour did I, with earnest thought,
Heap knowledge from forbidden mines of lore;
Yet nothing that my tyrants knew or taught
I cared to learn; but from that secret store
Wrought linked armour for my soul, before
It might walk forth, to war among mankind.
Thus, power and hope were strengthened more and more
Within me, till there came upon my mind

A sense of loneliness, a thirst with which I pined."

In the main the self-account given in these stanzas is genuine, though as Shelley was so apt a pupil he can hardly be said to have learnt nothing from what his "tyrants knew or taught ": probably what he meant to convey was that his most vital mental development was due more to the indirect knowledge which he voluntarily acquired.

The narrative of Shelley's early boyhood may be closed with Medwin's description of his cousin's personal appearance at this time. "He was tall for his age," says Medwin, "slightly and delicately built, and rather narrow-chested, with a complexion fair and ruddy, a face rather long than oval. His features, not regularly handsome, were set off by a profusion of silky brown hair, that curled naturally. The expression of his coun

tenance was one of exceeding sweetness and innocence. His blue eyes were very large and prominent. They were at times, when he was abstracted, as he often was in contemplation, dull, and as it were, insensible to external objects; at others they flashed with the fire of intelligence. His voice was soft and low, but broken in its tones,-when anything much interested him, harsh and unmodulated; and this peculiarity he never lost. He was naturally calm, but when he heard of or read of some flagrant act of injustice, oppression, or cruelty, then indeed the sharpest marks of horror and indignation were visible in his countenance."

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CHAPTER II.

T the age of twelve1 Shelley was removed from Sion House to more aristocratic Eton; possibly a course resolved upon by his parents from the first, but not improbably, at least, confirmed by the desire of Sir Bysshe, who, having been honoured by his baronetcy in his seventy-fifth year, was naturally anxious that the future head of the house which it was his intention to establish should have every educational and social advantage. The change was not one that at once brought happier days to the thoughtful, imaginative, overwrought boy, who had passed so many bitter hours since he had first left Field Place. Instead of some three-score lads he found himself in a company of several hundred, and amidst a system of petty tyranny which was prone to extend to a most evil excess.

Having been well grounded, Shelley was placed at once in the upper fourth form, and as a student he seems to have made very satisfactory progress. He first

This point has been set at rest by Professor Dowden, who adduces evidence to prove that on July 29, 1804, Percy Bysshe Shelley's name was entered in his own writing in the head-master's entrance book.

resided with a Mr. Hexter, a teacher of writing, and apparently found that gentleman kindly and sympathetic; but ere long he was transferred to the house of a Mr. Bethell, a pompous and oppressively dull assistantmaster. This tutor was the butt of the whole school, and apparently deserved the ridicule which was freely be stowed upon him. It was this same Bethell who was an involuntary actor in an often-described scene in Shelley's room. Entering the latter one day he found the boy occupied in the production of a blue flame, and on angrily inquiring what was taking place, was jocularly answered that his pupil was raising the devil. A volcanic battery was on the table, but the master was unaware of its properties; seizing hold of it he was suddenly hurled back against the wall by the unexpected force of the electric shock. A severe thrashing was the penalty for this misdemeanour, but probably Shelley felt that the suffering inflicted by the head-master's rod was fully discounted by the reputation he gained among his admiring fellows. This head-master was a Dr. Keate, distinguished among his compeers for pugnacity, vigour, and self-assertion, and among Etonians for his brutality. The latter has been called justifiable severity, but a man who can leave his guests in order to flog a batch of youngsters, and return with intensified gaiety and appetite, or who can gleefully thrash eighty delinquents successively, can hardly claim to be considered as nothing more than severe. Shelley received many floggings, besides the innumerable fag-thrashings from older schoolfellows, but to corporal chastisement he finally became indifferent, and even endured it with

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