My Schools and Schoolmasters; Or, The Story of My Education

An autobiographical narrative recounts early childhood impressions and family influences, moving through local schooling, apprenticeships, and youthful experiments in natural history. It describes boyhood amusements and moral lessons, field excursions that foster geological curiosity, conflicts and friendships formed at subscription schools and in laboring life, and gradual intellectual development through self-education. Later sections reflect on religious belief, recurrent ill health and convalescence, manual trades, urban experiences, and evolving scientific and literary pursuits. The work blends episodic memoir with observational sketches to show how practical experience and reflection shaped a life of study.