?If I did not at that time educate myself, I at least did the next best thing. I tried to. English was picked up from Cobbett; the lessons in Cassell?s "Popular Educator" offered some insight into Latin; French was studied from the same pages in conjunction with another youth; and arrangements were made with an enthusiastic disciple of Isaac Pitman to plunge the depths of phonography when a change of circumstances cast these and all other educational projects to the winds.?