My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

SELF-EDUCATION IN SCIENCE, ETC. 115gentleman's family at Isleworth, and my sisterobtained a post as teacher at an Episcopal College,then just founded by the Bishop of Georgia (Dr.Elliott), at Montpelier Springs, seventeen miles fromMacon, and left England in August, 1844.Shortly before I came of age in January, 1844,my brother told me that as he had no work in prospectit was necessary that I should leave him and lookout for myself ; so I determined to go up to Londonand endeavour to obtain some employment.As the period of my home and school life andsubsequent tutelage under my brother now came toan end, and I had for the future to make my ownway in the world, this affords a suitable occasion fora brief review of the chief points in my character,which may now be considered to have been fairlydetermined, although some portions of it had not yethad opportunity for full development.I do not think that at this time I could be said tohave shown special superiority in any of the highermental faculties, but I possessed a strong desire toknow the causes of things, a great love of beauty inform and colour, and a considerable but not excessivedesire for order and arrangement in whatever I hadto do. If I had one distinct mental faculty moreprominent than another, it was the power of correctreasoning from a review of the known facts in anycase to the causes or laws which produced them, andalso in detecting fallacies in the reasoning of otherpersons. This power has greatly helped me in allmy writings, especially those on natural history andsociology. The determination of the direction inwhich I should use these powers was due to mypossession in a high degree of the two mental qualitiesusually termed emotional or moral, an intense