
and oxen, and transacted the everyday affairs of life, through the medium of
this language, and still longer to make him understand why he should be called
upon to learn it, when its connection with those affairs had become entirely
latent. So far as Tom had gained any acquaintance with the Romans at Mr. Jacobs'
academy, his knowledge was strictly correct, but it went no farther than the
fact that they were »in the New Testament;« and Mr. Stelling was not the man to
enfeeble and emasculate his pupil's mind by simplifying and explaining, or to
reduce the tonic effect of etymology by mixing it with smattering, extraneous
information, such as is given to girls.
    Yet, strange to say, under this vigorous treatment Tom became more like a
girl than he had ever been in his life before. He had a large share of pride,
which had hitherto found itself very comfortable in the world, despising old
Goggles, and reposing in the sense of unquestioned rights; but now this same
pride met with nothing but bruises and crushings. Tom was too clear-sighted not
to be aware that Mr. Stelling's standard of things was quite different, was
certainly something higher in the eyes of the world than that of the people he
had been living amongst, and that, brought in contact with it, he, Tom Tulliver,
appeared uncouth and stupid: he was by no means indifferent to this, and his
pride got into an uneasy condition which quite nullified his boyish
self-satisfaction, and gave him something of the girl's susceptibility. He was
of a very firm, not to say obstinate disposition, but there was no brute-like
rebellion and recklessness in his nature: the human sensibilities predominated,
and if it had occurred to him that he could enable himself to show some
quickness at his lessons, and so acquire Mr. Stelling's approbation, by standing
on one leg for an inconvenient length of time, or rapping his head moderately
against the wall, or any voluntary action of that sort, he would certainly have
tried it. But no - Tom had never heard that these measures would brighten the
understanding, or strengthen the verbal memory; and he was not given to
hypothesis and experiment. It did occur to him that he could perhaps get some
help by praying for it; but as the prayers he said every evening were forms
learned by heart, he rather shrank from the novelty and irregularity of
introducing an extempore passage on a topic of petition for which he was not
aware of any precedent. But one day when he had broken
