Such was the world into
which I had come, into which I had in some way to thrust myself and fit
my problem, my temptations, my efforts, my patriotic instinct, all my
moral instincts, my physical appetites, my dreams and my sanity.
London! I came up to it, young and without advisers, rather
priggish, rather dangerously open-minded and very open-eyed, and with
something--it is, I think, the common gift of imaginative youth, and I
claim it unblushingly--fine in me, finer than the world and seeking fine
responses. I did not want simply to live or simply to live happily or
well; I wanted to serve and do and make--with some nobility. It was in
me. It is in half the youth of the world.
II
I had come to London as a scholar. I had taken the Vincent Bradley
scholarship of the Pharmaceutical Society, but I threw this up when I
found that my work of the Science and Art Department in mathematics,
physics and chemistry had given me one of the minor Technical Board
Scholarships at the Consolidated Technical Schools at South Kensington.
This latter was in mechanics and metallurgy; and I hesitated between the
two.
Pages:
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177