Excerpt from The Fig Tree Young Harry did not feel he could do much about stopping people destroying themselves in war, but their other possible fate deeply engaged his thoughts. By the time he was fourteen he had decided that when he grew up he would save humanity. Thus when other boys of his age dreamed of being Olympic champions or unbeatable boxers, Harry dreamed of grateful nations unveiling statues to himself as their saviour. To be a saviour he had, of course, to be a scientist, and this he made up his mind to be. From that time onward, he allowed nothing to get in the way of his ambition. He gave up going to chapel, because he noted that scientists had little use for religion; he gave up the Boy Scouts, because they were too cheerful for his serious frame of mind; and he gave up football, which he enjoyed, because it took up too much of his time. On his sixteenth birthday, his headmaster called him to his study, and asked him in a paternal way if he had given any thought as to what he wanted to do in life. Harry said, in his serious treble. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.