I was now growing up fast, and began to feel a boyish ambition of associating with, those who were older and bigger than myself.  Although miserably deficient in education—­for I had been well beaten but never taught—­yet I was looked upon as a prodigy of knowledge; and I can assure the reader that I took very good care not to dispel that agreeable delusion.  Indeed, at this time, I was as great a young literary coxcomb as ever lived, my vanity being high and inflated exactly in proportion to my ignorance, which was also of the purest water.  This vanity, however, resulted as much from my position and circumstances as from any strong disposition to be vain on my part.  It was generated by the ignorance of the people, and their extreme veneration for any thing in the shape of superior knowledge.  In fact, they insisted that I knew every earthly subject, because I had been a couple of years at Latin, and was designed for a priest.  It was useless to undeceive men who would not be convinced, so I accordingly gave them, as they say, “the length of their tether;” nay, to such, purpose did I ply them with proofs of it, that my conversation soon became as fine a specimen of pedantic bombast as ever was uttered.  Not a word under six feet could come out of my lips, even of English; but as the best English, after all, is but commonplace, I peppered them with vile Latin, and an occasional verse in Greek, from St. John’s Gospel, which I translated for them into a wrong meaning, with an air of lofty superiority that made them turn up their eyes with wonder.  I was then, however, but one of a class which still exists, and will continue to do so until a better informed generation shall prevent those who compose it from swaggering about in all the pompous pride of young impostors, who boast of knowing “the seven languages.”  The reader will find an illustration of this in the sketch of “Denis O’Shaughnessy going to Maynooth.”

In the meantime, I was unconsciously but rapidly preparing myself for a position in Irish literature, which I little dreamt I should ever occupy.  I now mingled in the sports and pastimes of the people, until indulgence in them became the predominant passion of mv youth.  Throwing the stone, wrestling, leaping, foot-ball, and every other description of athletic exercise filled up the measure of my early happiness.  I attended every wake, dance, fair, and merry-making in the neighborhood, and became so celebrated for dancing hornpipes, jigs, and reels, that I was soon without a rival in the parish.

This kind of life, though very delightful to a boy of my years, was not, however, quite satisfactory, as it afforded me no ultimate prospect, and the death of my father had occasioned the circumstances of the family to decline.  I heard, about this time, that a distant relative of mine, a highly respectable priest, had opened a classical school near Glasslough, in the county of Monaghan.  To him I accordingly went, mentioned our affinity, and had my claims allowed.  I attended his school with intermission for about two years, at the expiration of which period I once more returned to our family, who were then very much reduced.