“My grandmother sent me to school, but I looked at the master and saw that he was a smooth, round ferule, or an improper noun, or a vulgar fraction, and refused to obey him. Or he was a piece of string, a rag, a willow-wand, and I had a contemptuous pity. But one was a well of cool, deep water, and looking suddenly in one day I saw the stars.

“That one gave me all my schooling. With him I used to walk by the sea, and, as we strolled and the waves plunged in long legions before us, I looked at him through the spectacles, and as his eyes dilated with the boundless view, and his chest heaved with an impossible desire, I saw Xerxes and his army, tossed and glittering, rank upon rank, multitude upon multitude, out of sight, but ever regularly advancing, and, with confused roar of ceaseless music, prostrating themselves in abject homage. Or, as with arms outstretched and hair streaming on the wind, he chanted full lines of the resounding Iliad, I saw Homer pacing the Ægean sands in the Greek sunsets of forgotten times.

“My grandmother died, and I was thrown into the world without resources, and with no capital but my spectacles. I tried to find employment, but everybody was shy of me. There was a vague suspicion that I was either a little crazed, or a good deal in league with the prince of darkness. My companions, who would persist in calling a piece of painted muslin a fair and fragrant flower, had no difficulty; success waited for them around every corner, and arrived in every ship.

“I tried to teach, for I loved children. But if anything excited a suspicion of my pupils, and putting on my spectacles I saw that I was fondling a snake, or smelling at a bud with a worm in it, I sprang up in horror and ran away; or if it seemed to me through the glasses that a cherub smiled upon me, or a rose was blooming in my buttonhole, then I felt myself imperfect and impure, not fit to be leading and training what was so essentially superior to myself, and I kissed the children and left them weeping and wondering.

“In despair I went to a great merchant on the island, and asked him to employ me.

“‘My dear young friend,’ said he, ‘I understand that you have some singular secret, some charm, or spell, or amulet, or something, I don’t know what, of which people are afraid. Now you know, my dear,’ said the merchant, swelling up, and apparently prouder of his great stomach than of his large fortune, ‘I am not of that kind. I am not easily frightened. You may spare yourself the pain of trying to impose upon me. People who propose to come to time before I arrive are accustomed to arise very early in the morning,’ said he, thrusting his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat, and spreading the fingers, like two fans, upon his bosom. ‘I think I have heard something of your secret. You have a pair of spectacles, I believe, that you value very much, because your grandmother brought them as a marriage portion to your grandfather. Now if you think fit to sell me those spectacles I will pay you the largest market price for them. What do you say?’

“I told him I had not the slightest idea of selling my spectacles.

“‘My young friend means to eat them, I suppose,’ said he, with a contemptuous smile.

“I made no reply, but was turning to leave the office when the merchant called after me:

“‘My young friend, poor people should never suffer themselves to get into pets. Anger is an expensive luxury in which only men of a certain income can indulge. A pair of spectacles and a hot temper are not the most promising capital for success in life, Master Titbottom.’

“I said nothing, but put my hand upon the door to go out when the merchant said, more respectfully:

“‘Well, you foolish boy, if you will not sell your spectacles, perhaps you will agree to sell the use of them to me. That is, you shall only put them on when I direct you, and for my purposes. Hallo! you little fool!’ cried he impatiently, as he saw that I intended to make no reply.