I did not concern myself about a superficial study of the words, or of some point of scenic effect, or of greater or less accentuation of certain phrases with a view to win passing applause; a vaster horizon opened out before me--an infinite sea on which my bark could navigate in security, without fear of falling in with reefs." His method was not new, but he considered it so, and gives his opinion in quotation-marks.

He speaks of characters with which, his name is not always associated by writers on the stage, but is correct, I think, in the main.
Many years ago a little boy entered Harrow school and was put in a class beyond his years, wherein all the other boys had the advantage of previous instruction.

His master used to reprove his dullness, but all his efforts could not raise him from the lowest place in the class.

The boy finally procured the elementary books which the other boys had studied.

He devoted the hours of play and many of the hours of sleep to mastering the elementary principles of these books.