Scotland. To an imagination that has been exalted by the sublime grandeur and romantic beauty of highland scenery, the noblest works of art seem diminutive, and have little or no interest. At this period, I should have thought St. Peters, on which I have since gazed with so much astonishment and delight, larger indeed than my father's manse; but it would have excited no sublime ideas in my mind. What is even this stately monument of human industry and genius compared to those stupendous pieces of nature's architecture with which I was familiar?

Among others I had a letter of introduction to the late celebrated Professor D—I, This truly good man, and eminent scholar, received me with the kindness of a father. I attended his class, and he infused into my mind a taste for Greek literature, which, amid all the changes of my fortune, I have never ccased to foster. I still remember the light of the Professor's countenance as he explained the beauties of Homer, or Xenophon, Euripides or Sophocles; my hair has bristled with horror as he uttered the fiend, like strike" of Electra, and I have shed tears of pity and delight as he explained the beautiful and pathetic address of old Priam over the body of Hec

I soon attained a very distinguished place in the class, and was often commended by the Professor with kind partiality. In this way passed the first winter, and these were the halcyon days of my existence.

At the expiration of the six months allotted for the term of Scotch universities, I returned home. I shall not describe to you, Sir, the delight with which I again inhaled the fresh breezes of my

native mountains, nor the swelling of bosom with which I again beheld my native vale, nor the raptures with which I again clasped the authors of my existence in my arms. I hasten to matter of a very different nature. At the usual season I again returned to Edinburgh, and I spent part of this wintér like the last, in fsel improvement and self gratulation. I took a most extensive view of ancient and modern literature. My mind was humanized by the polished strains of Sophocles, by the tenderness, the pathos and fine moral vein of Euripides, and my love of liberty was enflamed by the dar ing and patriotic eloquence of Demosthenes. My evenings and my mornings, my nights and my days, were spent in the perusal of Thucydides and Herodotus, Tacitus and Livy, Hume and Robertson, Homer and Virgil, Shakespeare and Milton; and these, Sir, were evenings and mornings of delight.

Professor D--had written to my father, to congratulate him on the ardour and success with which I prosecuted my studies. Every parent whose bosom. has throbed with delight at the prosperity of an only son, will understand the joy with which my father and mother perused this letter. My mother in particular read it a hundred times over, and each succeeding time she watered it with her tears. Her happiness was now complete. A perfect congeniality of taste, sentiments, and opinions on all subjects, rendered my father and her more than usually happy in each other, the only painful hours which they had known since their union arose from me, and the cause of these pains seemed now removee. They did not anticipate even in imagination the terrible reverse which

awaited them. This was the last sunshine of their fortune. Every thing af ter this was darkness, gloom, and tempest.

About this time young Sinclair came to Edinburgh, I had not seen him before since he left the Highlands. He had not been in town two days when he called at my lodgings, and made many professions of friendship and esteem for me, told me that he was very proud to hear that his old friend had distinguished himself so much by the proficiency he had made in his studies: That he too had come to Edinburgh to study and requested to have as much of my society as possible, as my conversation could not but be improving to him. This young man had lived much in what the world is pleased to call good company, had a very genteel address and fascinating manners. he could talk with fluency on all common topics of conversation; and among the ladies, particularly the younger part of them, passed for a very clever, accomplished young gentleman; nor was it surprising he did so, Mr Spy. He could dance admirably, was a connoiseur in music, was an adept in fencing, horsemanship, and all the athletic exercises; was most studious in his attentions to the ladies; if any of them dropt a glove or a fan, he could pick it up with the best grace imaginable, and say some very pretty thing on the occasion, was constantly in their train at the theatre, at balls or assemblies, (for there were then no routs, Mr Spy,) and till young ladies are taught to look a little deeper into character, such men will always pass for accomplished. He could conceal the vices and defects of his character with very great art. He was in reality very ignorant; but whenever any subject was

introduced beyond his depths, he could turn it aside by some sprightly sally, or smart repartee, which, in the eyes of superficial observers, gave him a decided superiority. Beneath this exterior he concealed an extreme degree of selfishness. He scarcely had an idea beyond his own gratifications, and the means of procuring them; and as he was liberally suplied with money, he had very early plun ged into all the fashionable dissipations of large cities. Before twenty he was far gone in iniquity, himself, and his greatest delight was in corrupting others. He invited me to dine with him next day at his lodgings, where I met several young men of the same description. Nothing remarka ble happened on this occasion, except that I drank a little more wine than I had been accustomed to, in consequence of which my sleep was rather feverish during the night, and next morning I did not enjoy that fine elasticity of spirits which temperance and peaceful slumbers never fail to bestow. All next day I experienced a degree of langour that disqualified me for study and though I attended the class, I did not profit much by it; yet, upon the whole, I was pleased with my friend's party-There was an ease and frankness of manners, a gaiety and hilarity about all of them that charmed me.

He called upon me in the afternoon to offer me a ticket to the theatre, which I gladly accepted, as I hardly knew how to dispose of myself during the evening. When he entered the box, Mrs S-, who has been now upwards of thirty years the glory of the British theatre, was in the middle of Lady Randolph's affecting soliloquy. The most profound silence and attention prevailed over the whole house, yet he was no sooner seated, than observ

ing an acquaintance in the next box, he bawled out in a voice loud enough to be be heard at the opposite side of the pit, O, Jack, How d'ye do? I'm glad to see you here; step this way. The young man joined us-Don't you see that angel in the stage box; do you know who she is? No, said I in a whisper; I never saw so beautiful a creature in my life, said he, raising his voice still louder. Hush, said I-Poh, none of your antedeluvian notions, said he. No gentleman comes here to see the play-The eyes of the whole Pit were now turned towards our box. It was the first appearance, Mrs S had made in this city. The house was overflowing, and public expectation was wound up to its highest pitch-my countenance was suffused by a crimson blush. Mr Sinclair seemed rather to be pleased by the notice which he had attracted, and with a voice loud enough to drown the celestial tones of the great actress, he said to the young man on his other hand, Did you ever see such a horde of frightful creatures? except that angel in the stage box, there is not one of them even tolerable. The audience, however, had really come to see this celebrated woman, who was said to combine in her own person all those qualities requisite to form a great actress, and would not suffer their pleasure to beinterrupted thus. They raised an universal hiss-I concealed myself the best way 1 could behind a pillar-Sinclair looked up with an indifferent and unblushing countenance, but he was silent, or at least spoke in whispers for the rest of the evening.

I shall not describe to you, Sir, the concluding scene of this evening, I cannot think of it without horror. It is enough to say that I was carried home at

three o'clock of the morning in a state of gross intoxication, and awoke next day in all the torments of the rebellious spirits,when, after their expulsion from heaven, they found themselves surrounded by the gloom of infernal darkness.

In my despair I wished that I had ne ver again opened my eyes on the beams of the sun. To this day I had looked forward as a day of triumph-I was to read an essay on taste to the professor of Greek, which was expected to gain the prize; but alas, my essay was incomplete, as I had allotted the preceding day for revising it, and though it had been finished, I was in no state to read it. After two hours of mental agony, I rose at eleven o' clock, and was sitting in a melancholy posture when my friend entered. He looked as fresh as if he had spent the evening in perfect sobriety and virtue. He perceived my situation, prevailed upon me to drink a cup of tea, and proposed a ride into the country. It was a fine frosty day in the end of January-The air was keen and bracing-He entertained me with a number of droll and amusing anecdotes, and before our return my head ceased gradually to ache, my heart to throb, and my mind had nearly recovered its wonted se-renity. This, and almost every evening for a month, were spent in the same scenes of riot, and my horror for vice was gradually diminished. During this whole time I seldom attended the class, and hardly ever opened a book-The Profes sor, fearing that I was unwell, called to enquire for me, and was astonished to learn that I was in good health, and still more that I had been abroad for several nights past to a late hour. I met him ou his return home-I-was walking arm in arm with two of my friends-He stopped

me, and without the smallest air of reproach, asked me why I had not been attending the class for some time past-I blushed deep, my tongue faultered, and I stammered out an excuse hardly knowing what I said-He either was satisfied with my apology, or appeared to be so; and, taking me by the hand, said he hoped nothing would occur to prevent me from attending to-morrow, for he wished very much to hear my essay which, he had no doubt, would do honour to my learning, industry, and genius.

When he left me, these young men began to rally me on my love of learning. Tell me, said Sinclair, any one purpose in life for which your Latin and Greek are useful. My school master attempted for six years, to flog me into a knowledge of the inflections of nouns and verbs; but he might as well have saved himself the trouble. Young as I then was, I had too much good sense to submit to such intolerable drudgery. I knew my father had amassed a fortune of an hundred thousand pounds, without the least knowledge of either. He sometimes, with a grave countenance, advised me to attend carefully to my studies; but I often heard him ridicule our parson for his Latin, Greek and pedantry, and I saw no reason why I should deprive myself of an hour's

pleasure in acquiring what I heard him laugh at in others. Do you intend to bury yourself in a country church or a school, said he, raising a horse laugh! No, no, go with me to Liverpool, and if you do not, with your talents, in ten years acquire a fortune of fifty thousand pounds, say I have no skill in prophecy. Though I was not at all convinced by this mode of reasoning, my ardour was cooled for the moment, and I felt no inclination to defend the cause of a literary education. He perceived this and pushed his advan tage. What great action, said he, was ever achieved by a knowledge of Latin to justify the custom of obliging us to lose eight or ten of the best years of our life, spent in the acquisition. Was it by this that the great Marlborough checked the inad career of Louis the fourteenth? Was it thus that Lord Chatham held in his hands the balance of the power of Europe? Do Lattin and Greek promote our knowledge of astronomy, chymestry and navigation? Have they made our merchants the richest and most respectable men in Europe, or governors of the boundless plains of India? Believe me the thing is given up, except by the professors of universities, school masters who live by it, and ministers who have lived by it.

(To be Continued.)