I can say in my own favour that I was as a boy humane, but I owed this entirely to the instruction and example of my sisters.I doubt indeed whether humanity is a natural or innate quality.I was very fond of collecting eggs, but I never took more than a single egg out of a bird's nest, except on one single occasion, when I took all, not for their value, but from a sort of bravado.
I had a strong taste for angling, and would sit for any number of hours on the bank of a river or pond watching the float; when at Maer (The house of his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood.) I was told that I could kill the worms with salt and water, and from that day I never spitted a living worm, though at the expense probably of some loss of success.
Once as a very little boy whilst at the day school, or before that time, I acted cruelly, for I beat a puppy, I believe, simply from enjoying the sense of power; but the beating could not have been severe, for the puppy didnot howl, of which I feel sure, as the spot was near the house.This act lay heavily on my conscience, as is shown by my remembering the exact spot where the crime was committed.It probably lay all the heavier from my love of dogs being then, and for a long time afterwards, a passion.Dogs seemed to know this, for I was an adept in robbing their love from their masters.
I remember clearly only one other incident during this year whilst at Mr.Case's daily school,--namely, the burial of a dragoon soldier; and it is surprising how clearly I can still see the horse with the man's empty boots and carbine suspended to the saddle, and the firing over the grave.This scene deeply stirred whatever poetic fancy there was in me.