55 50 proper, decent, unnoticing disregard for the poor, insignificant stupid devils, the mecha"nics and peasantry around him, who were per"haps born in the same village. My young su"periors never insulted the clouterly appearance "of my plough-boy carcase, the two extremes of "which were often exposed to all the inclemen"cies of all the seasons. They would give me "stray volumes of books; among them, even "then, I could pick up some observations, and 66 one, whose heart I am sure not even the Munny Begum scenes have tainted, helped me to a "little French. Parting with these my young "friends and benefactors, as they occasionally went "off for the East or West Indies, was often to me a sore affliction, but I was soon called to more serious evils. My father's generous mas"ter died; the farm proved a ruinous bargain; "and to clench the misfortune, we fell into the " hands of a factor, who sat for the picture I have "drawn of one in my Tale of Twa Dogs. My "father was advanced in life when he married; "I was the eldest of seven children, and he, worn "out by early hardships, was unfit for labour. My father's spirit was soon irritated, ot easily broken. There was a freedom in his "lease in two years more, and to weather these "two years, we retrenched our expenses. We "lived very poorly: I was a dextrous ploughman " for A "for my age; and the next eldest to me was a "brother (Gilbert) who could drive the plough te very well, and help me to thrash the corn. "novel-writer might perhaps have viewed these scenes with some satisfaction, but so did not I; my indignation yet boils at the recollection of "the s-1 factor's insolent threatening letters, "which used to set us all in tears. "This kind of life-the cheerless gloom of a "hermit, with the unceasing moil of a galley"slave, brought me to my sixteenth year; a lit"tle before which period I first committed the sin "of Rhyme. You know our country custom of "coupling a man and woman together as partners "in the labours of harvest. In my fifteenth au"tumn, my partner was a bewitching creature, a year younger than myself. My scarcity of English denies me the power of doing her jus"tice in that language, but you know the Scottish "idiom; she was a bonnie, sweet, sonsie lass. In "short, she altogether unwittingly to herself, ini"tiated me in that delicious passion, which in "spite of acid disappointment, gin-horse pru"dence, and book-worm philosophy, I hold to "be the first of human joys, our dearest blessing "here below! How she caught the contagion I "cannot tell; you medical people talk much of "infection from breathing the same air, the touch, " &c. "&c. but I never expressly said I loved her.— "Indeed I did not know myself why I liked so "much to loiter behind with her, when returning "in the evening from our labours; why the tones "of her voice made my heart-strings thrill like an "Æolian harp; and particularly why my pulse "beat such a furious ratan when I looked and fingered over her little hand to pick out the cruel "nettle-stings and thistles. Among her other "love-inspiring qualities, she sung sweetly; and "it was her favourite reel to which I attempted giving an embodied vehicle in rhyme. I was "not so presumptuous as to imagine that I could "make verses like printed ones, composed by men who had Greek and Latin; but my girl sung a song which was said to be composed by a small country laird's son, on one of his father's 66 ૮૮ maids, with whom he was in love; and I saw "no reason why I might not rhyme as well as "he; for excepting that he could smear sheep, "and cast peats, his father living in the moor"lands, he had no more scholar-craft than my"self.* "Thus with me began love and poetry; which at times have been my only, and till within the "last twelve months, have been my highest enjoyment. My father struggled on till he reach * See Appendix, No. II. Note A. "ed "ed the freedom in his lease, when he entered on a larger farm, about ten miles farther in the "country. The nature of the bargain he made, 66 was such as to throw a little ready money into "his hands at the commencement of his lease, "otherwise the affair would have been imprac"ticable. For four years we lived comfortably here, but a difference commencing between "him and his landlord as to terms, after three years tossing and whirling in the vortex of li 66 tigation, my father was just saved from the hor"rors of a jail, by a consumption, which, after two years promises, kindly stepped in, and car"ried him away, to where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest! 66 く "It is during the time that we lived on this "farm, that my little story is most eventful. I was, at the beginning of this period, perhaps "the most ungainly aukward boy in the parishno solitaire was less acquainted with the ways of "of the world. What I knew of ancient story was gathered from Salmon's and Guthrie's geo graphical grammars; and the ideas I had formed "of modern manners, of literature, and criticism, "I got from the Spectator. These, with Pope's "Works, some plays of Shakespeare, Tull and "Dickson on Agriculture, The Pantheon, Locke's "Essay on the Human Understanding, Stackhouse's "History "History of the Bible, Justice's British Gardener's Directory, Bayle's Lectures, Allan Ramsay's "Works, Taylor's Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, A Select Collection of English Songs, and "Harvey's Meditations, had formed the whole of my reading. The collection of songs was my "vade mecum. I pored over them driving my cart, or walking to labour, song by song, verse "by verse; carefully noting the true tender, or "sublime, from affectation and fustian. I am "convinced I owe to this practice, much of my "critic-craft, such as it is. 66 "In my seventeeth year, to give my manners "a brush, I went to a country dancing-school.My father had an unaccountable antipathy against these meetings, and my going was what "to this moment I repent, in opposition to his "wishes. My father, as I said before, was sub ject to strong passions; from that instance of "disobedience in me, he took a sort of dislike to me, which, I believe was one cause of the dis"sipation which marked my succeeding years. "I say dissipation, comparatively with the strict"ness, and sobriety, and regularity of presbyte"rian country life; for though the will-o-wisp "meteors of thoughtless whim were almost the "sole lights of my path, yet early ingrained piety "and virtue, kept me for several years afterwards " within |