Father and son : a study of two temperaments / by Edmund Gosse.

  • Edmund Gosse
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Father and son : a study of two temperaments / by Edmund Gosse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    child, however, she had possessed a passion for making up stories, and so considerable a skill in it that she was constantly being begged to indulge others with its exercise. But I will, on so curious a point, leave her to speak for herself : “ When I was a very little child, I used to amuse myself and my brothers with inventing stories, such as I read. Having, as I suppose, naturally a restless mind and busy imagination, this soon became the chief pleasure of my life. Unfortunately, my brothers were always fond of encouraging this propensity, and I found in Taylor, my maid, a still greater tempter. I had not known there was any harm in it, until Miss Shore [a Calvinist governess], finding it out, lectured me severely, and told me it was wicked. From that time forth I considered that to invent a story of any kind was a sin. But the desire to do so was too deeply rooted in my affections to be resisted in my own strength [she was at that time nine years of age], and unfortunately T knew neither my corruption nor my weakness, nor did I know where to gain strength. The longing to invent stories grew with violence ; everything I heard or read became food for my distemper. The simplicity of truth was not sufficient for me ; I must needs embroider imagina- tion upon it, and the folly, vanity, and wickedness which disgraced my heart are more than I am