how I grew fond of reading and remembering and
reciting what I read till memory and imagination
were trained, and feelings and sentiments began to
play their part in shaping my life. My regular
schooling does not cover a period of more than
four years, a few flying visits to St. George's
Grammar School with my brother during the year
1878, and after that three months or so in 1880 at
the All-Saints' Institution. In 1881,1 was admitted
to the second class (from the top) at the Madrasa-i-
Aizza where I remained for four years. I was
able to live in the world I found in books, and
every tale and every poem read became part of my
feelings."
It is interesting to trace such influences back
to their small beginnings, and I select another
passage from his notes, which is too valuable not
to be quoted in full:
" My love of books, " he writes, " may be
traced back to an incident in 1881-82 when my
age was 10 or n. My father, who was Honorary
Secretary to the Madrasa-i-Aizza Committee,
had ordered some prize books from Bombay for
the coming prize distribution. The books were
kept in one of thfe rooms in our house and ex-
cited my boyish curiosity. The bindings were
so beautiful—rich with bright colours and gold,
and the pictures on some of them were so
fascinating. One day I crept into the room
with a somewhat guilty feeling, and began to
handle them with a thrill of fear and delight.
Reading the titles was all that I could do then,