Passages from the Life of a Philosopher

Taken to an Exhibition of Mechanism -- Silver Ladies -- School near London -- Unjustly punished -- Injurious Effect -- Ward's Young Mathematician's Guide -- Got up in the Night to Study -- Frederick Marryat interrupts -- Treaty of Peace -- Found out -- Strange Effect of Treacle and Cognac on Boys -- Taught to write Sermons under the Rev. Charles Simeon.

During my boyhood my mother took me to several exhibitions of machinery. I well remember one of them in Hanover Square, by a man who called himself Merlin. I was so greatly interested in it, that the Exhibitor remarked the circumstance, and after explaining some of the objects to which the public had access, proposed to my mother to take me up to his workshop, where I should see still more wonderful automata. We accordingly ascended to the attic. There were two uncovered female figures of silver, about twelve inches high.