The first day, for the purpose of qualifying, we had to write Latin exercises, and I remember that my father awaited, with some anxiety, the outcome of the examination.

When I told him I was second among fifteen I was surprised that he attached so much importance to a matter of so little interest to me.

It was all one to me! Broken hearted as I felt, how could I be affected by such a trifle?
Later, indeed, at no time, did I feel the impetus that the desire to excel brings with it.

To be at the foot of the class always seemed to me the least of the ills that a school-boy is called upon to endure.
The weeks following my entrance were extremely painful to me.

I felt my intellect cramping rather than expanding under the multiplicity of the lessons and the tasks imposed; even the realm of my young dreams seemed closing against me little by little.