Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/310

 CURRAN. 299 eminent proofs that' the seeds of wit and talents were not sparingly sown in his composition, the humble cir- cumstances of his parents afforded no prospect of an edu cation to bring out the native Instre of his capacity; and but for circumstances wholly fortuitous, he might have lived and died, with fame, no higher than that of a village wit, and the chance of succeeding to his father's office. Such might have been the fate of Curran, were he placed n any soil less congenial to the growth of his young intel- lect, or any guidance less favourable than that of a mother, whose native capacity was his best inheritance, whose cul- ture "taught his young ideas how to shoot," and whom he loved and venerated to the latest hour of his existence. The village school received him as an early pupil, where he soon evinced a capacity superior to his little ragged companions; and in the hours of play he proved his supe- riority in all the variegated sciences of marbles and chuck- farthing, and evinced a sportive fancy in all the arch pranks, and practical stratagems of the play-ground. His father, even if he had capacity, had little leisure to attend to the progress of his son's education. The youngster was therefore left to follow his own devices, snd pursue the bent of his humour in every species of lively fun and arch eccentricity. At fairs, where wit and whiskey alternately excited the laugh and the wrangle; at wakes, the last social obsequies to the dead in the village, at which sorrow and mirth in turns beguiled each other, young Curran was always present-now a mime, and now a mourner. The prophecies of the more serious began to augur most unfa- vourably to the future fortunes of young Pickle, while he was the favourite of all the cheerful. The court of his father was quite scandalised, but all acknowledged him the legitimate heir of his mother's wit. A new scene, how- ever, occurred in the amusements of the village, in which young Curran made his début as a principal actor with much éclat to his comic fame, and which through life he took great pleasure to relate as one of his first incentives eloquence, especially to that part of it which Demos- to