character. As this was a "chance dinner," it would be invidious to make observations, more especially as Mrs H. lamented that my coming to take pot-luck should have happened on washing-day; I shall therefore only observe, that the dinner was like what I afterwards found the minister's sermons to be, formed of good material, but spoiled in the cooking. I now discovered that this worthy couple both earned the bread they ate; for as I had seen the husband digging his dinner from the bowels of the earth, so his helpmate's hands now exhibited proof that they had been actively employed in the washing-tub. Instantly on the cloth being removed, the thrifty housewife made some apology for leaving us, and withdrew to resume her labours. As we sat over a jug of whisky toddy, it came to rain heavily, and continued through the afternoon sans intermission. Before tea, in addition to the rain,

66

The wind blew as 'twould blawn its last; the big drops rattled furiously on the windows, their sashes clattering in the frames. The sun was now set, and the parson facetiously observed, that it was an ill wind that blew naebody good," for he should have the pleasure of my company for the evening, as it was impossible I could go home. As my proposal of going to sleep at the inn would have implied dissatisfaction with my present quarters, I made some apology for the trouble, and agreed to stay; but I soon regretted my consent, for the good lady's countenance changed at my ready acquiescence. The tea was finished, and she went down stairs, where her voice soon rose in no gentle tones; the rain rattled, and the tempest bellowed, but the ebullition from her lungs rose above both; and this din was still farther increased by the screaming of the children, altogether forming a loud, but most unharmonious concert. The minister looked awkward and uneasy, and at last rung the bell, ordering a fire to be lighted in the study, as the night was cold. Mrs H. now burst into the room, in great alarm, crying, that one of the cows was swollen with wet clover, and lying in the field un

VOL. XV.

able to rise. Although her counte nance plainly said, Get up, gudeman-save crummie's life, An' tak' your auld cloak about you, he replied, "Well, what can I do? send for David Purdie-I'll not go out." The lady's face expressed resentment at this declaration, and she flung out, slamming the door behind her. I expressed my surprise that he should trouble himself with cows, having no glebe. He replied, that Mrs H. being from the country, had teased him into taking a few acres of land; but that he found it more plague than profit, although she found much pleasure in these rural cares. In a word, I discovered from his conversation, and what I had observed, that both were worldlyminded; but that she rather outdid him, and, according to the proverb, the grey mare was the better horse in his family. We adjourned to the study, where the fire, in the inflated language of Hervey, mocked our wishes, rather than warmed our limbs; and a very small dipped candle diffused a dim, religious light." This I saw was the usual economy of the house; but the parson ordered an addition to the one, and an exchange of the other. Tidings now arrived that the cow was dead. It was not perhaps possible for a woman of Mrs H.'s disposition to bear such a loss with equanimity; and a scene now took place between her and her husband which did honour to neither. The evening passed heavily, and we retired at an early hour, which I found was the practice in the family.

The howling tempest soon lulled me asleep, and a noise in the kitchen below awoke me by day-light. The morning was serene, and the sun just emerging from the sea; I opened my window, to inhale a little fresh air, but was saluted with an odour more powerful than pleasant, which I soon discovered proceeded from the cow-house and pig-stye, in the court under my window, which I hastily closed. I had sat only a few minutes, when a horrible uproar of grunting and squeaking assailed my ears. Peeping from behind the windowcurtain, I beheld the thrifty lady of the mansion in a dishabille which I

F.

cannot describe; her cap did not rival the lily, and her matted locks hung in disorder about her ears; her arms were bare to above the elbows; a petticoat, which seemed a stranger to the washing-tub, by its scanty longitude displayed a considerable portion of a brawny limb; she was slip-shod, and in the act of administering a pail of slops to the bristly fraternity in the stye; and plunging her arms into the pail, she stirred the mixture, before tumbling it into their trough, and then looked at the squeaking tribe with much complacency. Retiring, she in a minute or two returned with a large basin of offals, and calling out, "chuck, chuck!" soon collected a cackling and quacking throng around her, to all of which she distributed their morning dole, with her hand, from the basin. Never had I seen a female in respectable life in a dress, attitude, and employment, less attractive; and as soon as the minister appeared, I took my departure, resisting every entreaty to stay breakfast. At home, I could not help contrasting the lady I had just left with Mrs Baxter; for never had I seen two women about equal age, and in similar situations in life, more unlike each other in their habits and manners. "Ay," said my father, "the parsons have both some peculiar notions, and are very different characters; both marriages, I be lieve, were the result of theories formed in carly life, and both are unhappy."

I wish, for their sakes and that of their children, that I could wind up my story, by saying that they had been more fortunate in their respective theories concerning genius; but, alas! both were doomed by experience to see the futility of their speculations. Andrew Baxter adhering to his opinion, that genius would develope itself, by a decided predilection for some profession, kept Tom at school and college, till he be lieved him skilled in languages, mathematics, natural philosophy, and chemistry; still expecting the latent spark to burst forth, and that he would only have to superadd the study of some particular branch, to a mind of such general information;

but Tom was now turned seventeen, and had shewn no partiality for any profession, except that of a gentleman. The father, although still confident in his system, conceived there might be no harm in giving Madam Nature a jog on the elbow; and accordingly wrote to Tom, that he must now consult his genius, and decide on his future course of life. Tom had a strong attachment to the lighter species of the belles lettres,— had been a member of a debating club, attended the theatre, spouting and supping with the players. He had a

manly, handsome figure,-good ear,-clear, but fine mellow voice,and sung with taste. His father made no secret of his doctrine, and Tom now believed that Nature had destined him for the sock and buskin, and that he had only to appear on the boards, to eclipse Garrick, then in the meridian blaze of his glory. Confirmed in this opinion by some of his dramatic cronies, he determined for the stage; but prudently resolve ed not to make his first appesance where he was known; and as the company were soon to depart for Greenock, he arranged with the manager to accompany them, and make his debut in that quarter. The tragedy of Douglas was announced, the character of young Norval by a gentleman, being his first appearance on the stage. He ranted, looked, and talked like a hero, and was greeted with applause. Had they hooted him from the stage, he might then have made a timely retreat, and saved himself from future ills; but he was now sailing on the summer sea of popular applause, and the Temple of Fame appeared at a short distance, the portals of which he ima gined would open at his approach. He now wrote a farce, which he prevailed on the manager to bring forward. The good folks of Greenock were not fastidious; the pit clapped, and the gallery shook with thunders of applause. This was all very well; but although his fame was flourish ing almost equal to his wishes, he felt his finances in a galloping consumption; still his benefit was near; he prepared an original comic song, and an address by way of epilogue, all of which were announced in the

bills: the house was crowded, and Tom cleared a sum beyond his expectations.

To find a greater fool, or one more inflated with vanity than a poet and player, whose acting and writing have both been crowned with popular applause, the lad in the eighteenth year of his age, all his debts paid, and a dozen pounds in his pocket, I say, to find a greater fool than him, it would be necessary to visit a lunatic asylum. Tom hesitated and pondered, whether he should stick to his pen, or continue to tread the boards; but considering them as cousins-germain, and having the precedent of Shakes peare and Garrick before him, he resolved to unite both, and thus have two strings to his bow. He continued with the company till their return to Edinburgh, by which time he had a comedy ready for rehearsal : it was brought out at the opening of the Theatre, Tom appearing as the principal character; but either the muse had been less propitious, or the crities in Auld Reekie were influenced by caprice; the play dragged heavily through the first act, in the second much disapprobation was displayed, and in the third the hapless author was hissed from the stage, in what he believed the best scene in the piece, which was not suffered to come to a conclusion. What a difference in his feelings in two short hours! When he entered the Theatre, the thermometer of hope was just rising to the boiling point-it was now many degrees below zero. Bajazet in the plenitude of his power, and exhibited by Tamerlane in an ironcage, had not more opposite feelings. Longer stay in the metropolis was impossible, and a decent or manly retreat was impracticable, from the state of his finances. Almost frantic, he borrowed, or rather begged, a guinea from the Manager, and instead of returning home, made bad worse, by proceeding to Glasgow, and enlisting as a soldier in a marching regiment. But Tom had more dexterity in wielding the mimic truncheon on the stage than he had with the musket at drill; he was awkward, and the drill-sergeant tyrannical, and the ci-devant dramatic hero took French leave. Aware that his absence would produce some regret, but

with a firm resolution not to return, he contrived to secrete himself till a vessel was ready to sail for the western world. He landed on the shores of Columbia without a guinea in his pocket, and soon found that it was not the market for either poetical or histrionic talent.

Jonathan had as little relish for Greek and Mathematics; a stonemason would have been more esteemed than Dr Parr, and a millwright would have taken precedence of La Place. It was before the tarring and feathering scheme that Tom landed at Boston, still considered as the capital of a British colony. Tom's necessities were urgent; he wrote a good hand, and could manage pounds shillings and pence upon paper better than in his pocket. He applied to a store-keeper, was taken upon trial, and gave satisfaction; for although awkward, he was active, and anxious to please. He had been about a year in this situation, and had just come under an engagement for a regular salary, when one morning, being at the quay superintending the unloading of a cargo, he was informed that a British regiment was to be disembarked from some transports alongside. Turning to look, he saw, with no pleasant feelings, the uniform he had lately worn; and in a few minutes his quondam Captain came upon deck, while his former tyrannical drill-sergeant leaped on shore, almost close by his side.

The regiment was to be stationed in Boston, and as Tom had much out-of-door business, he found detection would soon follow. Having once seen a culprit flogged for de sertion, he had no wish for a practical knowledge of this discipline, and without loss of time fled to the interior, opened a school in a village on the margin of a swamp, which soon affected his health, and he was seized with an irresistible desire to re-visit Scotland, and die at his father's fire-side. By rigid economy and penurious living, he saved money for his passage, contrived to get on board a vessel for Britain, and, after an absence of more than three years, reached the manse, the home of his father, penniless, way-worn, and weary. Here he continued to wander for some time in the sunny vale,

Starting and shivering in th' inconstant

wind,

Meagre and pale, the ghost of what he

was;

and sunk to an untimely grave, before his sun of life had reached its noon. Such was the result of the Reverend Andrew Baxter's theory concerning genius.

The Reverend Francis Halliday had determined, when his son was yet whipping his top, or trundling his hoop, that he should be bred to the law. As the preliminary step to this, no pains were spared to make him an excellent Latin scholar. George had been early taught sub mission to the dicta of a parent; and when informed of his destination for life, although it gave him no plea sure, he did not start any objection, In the town where his father resided was a Notary, who was reckoned a Solomon for wisdom, and a Machiavel for policy and cunning; to this man George was put as an apprentice, and afterwards sent to study and practise under a friend most learned in the law at Edinburgh; it being his father's intention, that after his head was fully charged, and when he had been nursed to practice, that he should set up for himself in the county town, as a Notary, and pleader in the Sheriff-Court.

George Halliday was a lad of a peculiar turn of mind, had much of the milk of human kindness in his heart; and he had formed what men of the world would term romantic notions of probity and justice, which were often shocked by the specimens of legal quibbling which now came under his notice. He expressed to his father dislike to the law; but the parson replied, "When you find it profitable, it will then become delightful." After what appeared a long and irksome noviciate, George settled as a practitioner in the county town, with a firm determination to consult Concience, along with Coke and Lyttleton. The first cause in which he

was engaged was one of considerable importance and intricacy; he happened to have the right side, and was opposed by a popular pleader of long standing. However, he dis played such a profound knowledge of law, and poured forth such a torrent of eloquence, that his client was victor, and his fame spread over the country. Business poured in upon him; but George was capricious; for if he had doubts about the justice of a cause, he would not undertake it; and when convinced that the li tigant was wrong, flatly told him so; not only recommending an amicable settlement, but condescending to be come an arbitrator. When he did plead, however skilled in law, his greater zeal was always displayed for equity. Such was his pacific dispo sition, that frivolous but profitable litigation declined daily. Hence he was considered among his brethren as a dangerous innovator, who would, if not put down, destroy the trade. They endeavoured to propagate a re port that his brain was cracked and litigious men, whose causes he had' refused, circulated the tale, till those who doubted its truth were afraid to trust their business in his hands.

He persevered in his system,-his employment fell off,-the disappointed and angry parent remonstrated in vain, and at last, in bitter, wrath, told George he was a romantic and visionary fool; and he, in return, told his father that his counsels and opinions were at variance with, and unbecoming his character as a Minister of the Gospel of peace ;-they quarrelled, and parted in great wrath. Hating the law, and having lost a good part of the respect for his father, George withdrew to a small farm, in a distant and sequestered part of the country. Thus, by the injudicious resolve and pertinacious obstinacy of a parent, were talents and principles buried in obscurity, which would have been useful to society, and an ornament to their country.