My father followed, during most of his life, the precarious occupation of a country school teacher.

Whenever a total eclipse of the sun was visible in an accessible region parties were sent out to observe it.

If my impressions are correct, our educational planing mill cuts down all the knots of genius, and reduces the best of the men who go through it to much the same standard.

What we now call school training, the pursuit of fixed studies at stated hours under the constant guidance of a teacher, I could scarcely be said to have enjoyed.

In 1860 a total eclipse of the sun was visible in British America.

The result was that, if it happened to clear off after a cloudy evening, I frequently arose from my bed at any hour of the night or morning and walked two miles to the observatory to make some observation included in the programme.

My first undertaking in the way of scientific experiment was in the field of economics and psychology.