rich; and he contrasted their advantages with the state of heavily rented farmers in Scotland, who have not merely to find the rent in the soil, but to do so in a climate so uncertain and often so destructive of their outlay.

From Florence they walked by Bologna to Venice, with which John Blackie renewed his acquaintance. Their whole march from Rome had not cost them more than two shillings aday, which he records with some pride; but in Venice they met a Bosnian in charge of a return coach to Munich, who, being willing to pocket some trifle by securing passengers for the journey, offered to take them the whole way, with bed and board at the stages, for twelve florins each. As the journey lasted six days, they gladly accepted his terms, and travelled through the Tyrol and by Innsprück to their destination in comfort.

The two friends parted company at Munich, as Mr Thilemas lived there; but after a few days spent in visiting the pictures and antiquities, John Blackie made the acquaintance of a German student bound for the University of Bonn, and willing to make the way with him on foot foot through Augsburg, Wurtzburg, and Frankfort.

Mr Bunsen had advised him to remain the

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coming winter at Bonn, if he could get permission from his father to study there, and had furnished him with an introduction to Professor Brandes. But on his arrival he found a letter from Mr Blackie sharply reprimanding him for his dilatory return, and desiring to know on what earliest possible day he would be in London. This letter acted as a reminder that his years of liberty were coming to a close, and that his father would have a right to expect from him a return of evident profit for all the outlay and indulgence which had made them possible. The thought dejected him greatly, and for a time he lost sight of all that he had gained, and dwelt somewhat hopelessly upon the fear that, in spite of every advantage, he had acquired nothing of practical value. This self-distrust makes itself evident in his reply to the letter. He promised to leave Bonn in ten days, explained that what he had lost in time he had gained in pocket by making his journeys on foot, relinquished all new demands on his father's indulgence, attempted to summarise his gains from the two years and a half of absence, but admitted that his very gains might have led him to conclusions which would not only frustrate his father's hopes for him, but would possibly paralyse his own power to deal in any practical way with the circumstances

which form the very conditions of independence. Answering a stern comment on his scepticism, he concluded:

My scepticism is not final. I have cleared the ground, perhaps, from flowers as well as weeds; it is no matter,the flowers will grow so much the better afterwards.

His stay at Bonn was thus restricted to a mere visit; but he had the advantage of making the acquaintance of Professor Brandes, an acquaintance which ripened in after-years to friendship.

Mr Blackie took what was then the long journey from Aberdeen to London to meet his son, who arrived in London about the beginning of November, still clad in his white summer clothes. To have him properly clad would be the excellent banker's first care, as it was essential to the due carrying out of the paternal purpose in London. Eager as he was to see his son once more, he would hardly have undertaken the troublesome journey merely to forestall their meeting by a week. He came to introduce him to such of the London notabilities as he knew, and to secure their interest in his further success. These included Joseph Hume; Lord Brougham, who was a cousin of Dr Forsyth, the minister of Belhelvie; John Gibson Lockhart, connected by marriage with the Blackie family; William Jerdan, a Kelso

man and lifelong friend of Mr Blackie's, and at this time editor of the 'Literary Gazette'; and last, but greatest, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

With Lord Brougham they breakfasted, dined with Lockhart and Jerdan, and spent an hour with Coleridge. The great poet and thinker was then old and infirm, his body was bent and his face sad. He told the young enthusiast for German philosophy that he had thrown all such speculation overboard, and found perfect satisfaction for every inquiry in the first chapter of the Gospel of St John.

A week of metropolitan bustle was enough for Mr Blackie, and they turned their faces homeward at its end. It was a memorable homecoming after two years and a half of absence. Mrs Blackie, Aunt Manie, and his sisters were much excited. As the travellers drove up, Helen, twelve years old and timid, for whom the brother had grown to be of mythical proportions, hid herself behind the window-curtains. Even the stolid James was moved by expectancy. His welcome home was all that he could desire; his words and looks and gestures were devoured by admiring eyes; the long hair-badge of his Germanism was noted without censure; and his bubbling effervescence of fun and laughter evoked happy smiles at the full fireside.

VOL. I.

I

He stayed at home for six months, during which time his father and he had many conversations about his future. With the admirable good sense which distinguished him, Mr Blackie accepted without demur his son's attitude towards the Church, and magnanimity as well as good sense dictated his acceptance; for all the advantages at home and abroad which he had gladly afforded him from the first indication of his theological impulse, were intended to fit him for a distinguished career in the Scottish Church.

And now his son returned on his hands, endowed with new and varied acquirements, it is true, but also with new and varied aims, and the studies which he had pursued to deepen his theological insight and to strengthen his grasp of theological doctrine had only served to bewilder the one and to paralyse the other. The finer polish, too, which was meant to adorn the doctrine of Scottish Calvinism had diverted his unsettled mind into secular directions; and here was this youngster of twenty-two aspiring to lofty academical posts because he must needs be enamoured of the learned and industrious lives and influence of veteran Göttingen professors.

But Mr Blackie made a shrewd reckoning of his son's gains and gifts. True, he was a youngster, and what he had learned in Scotland he had