My abilities were not despicable, my ambition
was restless, and my progress in my studies was therefore
respectable. I conceived a genuine admiration for the classick
authors; I was genuinely moved by the majesty of Homer and the
felicity of expression in Horace. In due time I went to Oxford, and
after the usual course there, in which I was not unsuccessful, I
took Holy Orders and became a curate. When I was about eight-and-
twenty I was presented with a College living in the village of A.
about four miles from the county town of B. in the West of England.
My parishioners were the squire, a half-pay captain in the army, a
retired custom-house surveyor who was supposed to be the
illegitimate son of a member of parliament, and the surrounding
farmers and labourers. All were grossly illiterate, but I soon
observed that a common ignorance does not prevent, but rather tends
to establish artificial distinctions. Inferiority by a single
degree in the social scale becomes not only a barrier to
intercourse, but a sufficient reason for contempt.
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