range of subjects.

He was more remarkable on

the moral side-for an unflinching energy of purpose, coupled with powers of endurance, far above the usual run of his class, or of any class. class. He was not without amiability and affection, but wanted the power of expressing what he really may have felt; and, consequently, his demeanour toward his family was hard and severe, and did not inspire affection on our side. When he came finally to Aberdeen after his discharge, he took a religious turn, which may be partly ascribed to the preaching of a remarkable Irishman settled in Aberdeen, in a large church known as Gilcomston Chapel of Ease, Dr. James Kidd, of whom I shall speak later on.

A year after his return, my father married a young woman of twenty-two, my mother. She was vigorous, active, most industrious, and a good manager of limited means. She had the misfortune, however, to contract an asthmatic affection, by carrying me as a baby some miles in the country on a hot day; and her asthma is mixed up with my earliest recollections of her. This must have added to the burden of her labours, but never made her relax her duties, except during the moments of paroxysms; although the ailment, of course, under the circumstances, shortened her life.

So young a mother was likely to have a numerous family. Eight in all were born; three died in

infancy, the remaining five attained maturity, but I, the second, was the only one that saw forty. Of the other four, I may say that they were all failures in life every one of them had, at some time or other, to be assisted by me. Only one, my elder brother, was married; and of his family of four, but one daughter remains.1 Such a melancholy history made a lasting impression on my mind, as indicating something entirely wrong.

When my father married, the trade of handloom weaving was prosperous, and expert workers could make good wages. I have a dim recollection of its being said that a man like my father, who was both expert and industrious, could earn considerably over a pound a week. But it was the sad experience of our family, that the remuneration of piece work steadily fell from year to year; and my earliest feelings of bitter distress were due to my father's announcing, time after time, the reduction of the rate per piece of the fabrics that he wove. As the increase of his family was steady at the same time, the result was that he increased his amount of production until, I may say, for a number of years, his working day ranged from thirteen to fifteen hours. No other man that I knew could compare with him in this determination to cope with the needs of his growing family. 1 Since deceased.—[ED.]

The beginnings of my education pass beyond the reach of my memory. My father took pains with my elder brother and myself, and taught us the alphabet and our first steps in writing and arithmetic. When my recollection begins-and I cannot carry my memory farther back than this stage,-I find myself in the school of an old dame, who taught only reading (with spelling), and that wholly from the Bible: I could not then have been much above three. She began us with Proverbs, of which there was a separate print for the purpose. From Proverbs we went on to the New Testament, and then to the more difficult books of the Old,--those that, like Nehemiah, bristle with proper names. The metrical Psalms we read, and had to get largely by heart, along with the Shorter Catechism; a memory task being given out every Saturday for the Saturday following. My earliest piece of strategy was hit upon in connexion with this lesson. It was necessary to produce a new short psalm, or, it might be, one of the sections of the 119th Psalm, every week; and feeling the demand oppressive, the idea occurred to me to alternate two psalms on successive Saturdays. As the old woman's memory was too short to detect the manoeuvre, it lasted me out my attendance with her.

My next teacher was a young student, Charles

MY EARLY EDUCATION.

5

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Gray. With him I learnt writing and arithmetic, having had some lessons in both from my father. Arithmetic, I infer, I learnt with ease; for, I have no recollection of the first steps in it, as I have in the case of my writing, from getting my ears repeatedly pulled for its badness. I may have been between five and six at this stage. member nothing about the reading lessons, nor whether any sort of knowledge was imparted through them. Gray gave up his miserable little school to another student, M'Taggart, whose after-career in the Church showed him to be a man of power. At all events, he was the first to discover in me any faculty above common. He wrote to my father to say that, in mathematics, I had taken him by surprise. He found that I was able to enter upon Algebra, after having done Arithmetic, and set me to work accordingly, at the age of about seven. Before I left him, I had done all the common rules, and had gone as far as equations-simple and quadratic.

M'Taggart gave up his school when I had completed eight years, and I was now transferred to the school attached to the Gilcomston Church,— where I remained three years. The teacher, named Straith, was, I believe, a graduate in Arts, and a student of Divinity. He had moderate scholarship, and was something of an elocutionist in his manner.

When I joined the school, he was under the disadvantage of having just recovered from the amputation of a leg; but he gradually regained power of locomotion, and, being young, he showed no particular lack of energy. His school might compare with a fairly well-appointed Parish school; he doing all the work himself, by taking us up in classes alternately, and leaving us with certain tasks in the intervals. I do not remember the books we used for reading lessons; but we had a touch of English Grammar from Lennie-which made no impression upon me,—a little Geography, and possibly something of the nature of History. An hour a day was devoted to Writing, in which, as usual, I gave very little satisfaction, especially to my father, until I found out that I did not incline the letters enough for his taste. Arithmetic was taught individually, the pupils bringing up their slates one at a time to be looked at by the master, who gave out fresh questions to be solved. I was at once plunged into Algebra, and went through the elementary parts again, including fractions and surds, till I came to equations, simple and quadratic, all which I could work with ease. I got a "Bonnycastle" for my own special use, and went on to the cubic and higher equations, and a number of miscellaneous topics,-which I understood generally, but the exercises under