Goodbye to all That by Robert Graves — Read

I STILL had no friends except among the junior members of the house, from whom I did not conceal my dislike of the seniors; I found the juniors on the whole a decent lot. Towards the end of this year, in the annual boxing and gymnastic display, I fought three rounds with Raymond. There is a lot of love in boxing - the dual play, the reciprocity, the pain not felt as pain. We were out neither to hurt nor win, though we hit each other hard.

This public appearance improved my position in the house. Then the doctor allowed me to play football again, and I played it fairly well; but things went wrong in a different way. It began with confirmation, for which I was prepared by a zealous evangelical master. For a whole term I concentrated all my thoughts on religion, looking forward to the ceremony as a spiritual climax. When it came, and the Holy Ghost failed to descend in the form of a dove, and I did not find myself gifted with tongues, and nothing spectacular happened (except that the boy whom the Bishop of Zululand was blessing at the same time as myself slipped off the narrow foot-stool on which we were both kneeling), I was bound to feel a reaction. Raymond had not been confirmed, and astonished me by admitting, and even boasting, that he was an atheist. I argued with him about the existence of God, and the divinity of Christ, and the necessity of the Trinity.