It had for me the wonderful fascination attributed to forbidden fruit.

I can well understand the story of Marjory Fleming, who being cross one morning when Walter Scott called and asked how she was, answered: "I am very cross this morning, Mr.Scott.I just want to say 'damn' [with a swing], but I winna." Thereafter the expression of the one fearful word was a great point.
Ministers could say "damnation" in the pulpit without sin, and so we, too, had full range on "hell" in recitation.

Another passage made a deep impression.

In the fight between Norval and Glenalvon, Norval says, "When we contend again our strife is mortal." Using these words in an article written for the "North American Review" in 1897, my uncle came across them and immediately sat down and wrote me from Dunfermline that he knew where I had found the words.

He was the only man living who did.
My power to memorize must have been greatly strengthened by the mode of teaching adopted by my uncle.