. Shelley, the man and the poet . ions of men. Shelley often spoke of it; and it wasperhaps the origin of his liking for serpents, thoughthe curse laid upon them in Genesis would account forthat. We get most of the stories of Shelleys childhood fromhis sister Hellen. They might be told of any clever childwithout arousing expectation of genius. It is clear thathe began early to live in a romance of his own, asunlike real life as he could make it. Many children dothis ; but boys usually sacrifice it to reality when theygo to a private school; girls, when they marry, if notbefore. Shelleys life o
. Shelley, the man and the poet . ions of men. Shelley often spoke of it; and it wasperhaps the origin of his liking for serpents, thoughthe curse laid upon them in Genesis would account forthat. We get most of the stories of Shelleys childhood fromhis sister Hellen. They might be told of any clever childwithout arousing expectation of genius. It is clear thathe began early to live in a romance of his own, asunlike real life as he could make it. Many children dothis ; but boys usually sacrifice it to reality when theygo to a private school; girls, when they marry, if notbefore. Shelleys life of romance did not end with school. In-deed it thickened about him as he grew up, and all factswere moulded and coloured to suit it. At first, of course,it was all invention. He would take his little sisters onhis knee and tell them wonderful and dreadful said that a closed garret under the roof was inhabitedby an alchemist with a long beard, and that a great tortoiselived in Warnham Pond and made any strange noise that. FIELD PLACE AN EN(;UA\IN(; IIV AUTHCH K\KI<SHKU CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD 5 might be heard. He would dress himself and his sisters upto represent fiends or spirits. Like many clever childrenhe would describe events which had never happened. Oncehe gave minute details of a visit he had paid to some ladies,and it was discovered almost at once to be all an was fond, as in later years, of any kind of make-believeand mystification. Once he was discovered setting outdisguised as a countryman with a truss of hay, which hewas going to take to a young lady at Horsham, that shemight have some hay tea for her chilblains. Once hecalled on a neighbour and asked in the Sussex dialect tobe employed as a gamekeepers boy. The neighbour en-gaged him, whereupon he betrayed himself by burstinginto laughter. There is nothing in all this to wonder at. Somechildren are content with realistic make-believe. Theypretend to garden in the nursery, or to fish on
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