modes of teaching others, but said nothing-or, what amounted to the same thing, nothing to the purpose And as my when I had on the best mode of teaching one's self. circumstances and position, at the time most occasion to consult them, were those of by much the largest class of the people of this and every other civilized country,-for I was one of the many millions who need to learn, and yet have no one to teach them, -I could not help deeming the omission a serious one. I have since come to think, however, that a formal treatise on self-culture might fail to supply the want. Curiosity must be awakened ere it can be satisfied; nay, once awakened, it never fails in the end fully to satisfy itself; and it has occurred to me, that by simply laying before the working men of the country the "Story of my Education," I may succeed in first exciting their curiosity, and next, occasionally at least, in gratifying it also. They will find that by far the best schools I ever attended are schools open to them all, that the best teachers I ever had are (though severe in their discipline) always easy of access,-and that the special form at which I was, if I may say so, most successful as a pupil, was a form to which I was drawn by a strong inclination, but at which I had less assistance from my brother men, or even from books, than at any of the others. There are few of the natural sciences which do not lie quite as open to the working men of Britain and America as geology did to me. My work, then, if I have not wholly failed in it, may be regarded as a sort of educational treatise, thrown into the narrative form, and addressed more especially to working men. They will find that a considerable portion of the scenes and incidents which it records, read their lesson, whether of encouragement or warning, or throw their occasional lights on peculiarities of character or curious natural phenomena, to which their attention might be not unprofitably directed. Should it be found to possess an interest to any other class, it will be an interest chiefly derivable from the glimpses which it furnishes of the inner life of the Scottish people, and its bearing on what has been somewhat clumsily termed "the condition-of-the-country question." My sketches will, I trust, be recognized as true to fact and nature. And as I have never perused the autobiography of a working man of the more observant type, without being indebted to it for new facts and ideas respecting the circumstances and character of some portion of the people with which I had been less perfectly acquainted before, I can hope that, regarded simply as the memoir of a protracted journey through districts of society not yet very sedulously explored, and scenes which few readers have had an opportunity of observing for themselves, my story may be found to possess some of the interest which attaches to the narratives of travellers who see what is not often seen, and know, in consequence, what is not generally known. In a work cast into the autobiographic form, the writer has always much to apologize for. With himself for his subject, he usually tells not only more than he ought, but also, in not a few instances, more than he intends. For, as has been well remarked, whatever may be the character which a writer of his own Memoirs is desirous of assuming, he rarely fails to betray the real one. He has almost always his unintentional revelations, that exhibit peculiarities of which he is not conscious, and weaknesses which he has failed to recognize as such; and it will, no doubt, be seen, that what is so generally done in works similar to mine, I have not escaped doing. But I cast myself full on the good nature of the reader. My aims have, I trust, been honest ones; and should I in any degree succeed in rousing the humbler classes to the important work of self-culture and self-government, and in convincing the higher that there are instances in which working men have at least as legitimate a claim to their respect as to their pity, I shall not deem the ordinary penalties of the autobiographer a price too high for the accomplishment of ends so important. CONTENTS. PAGE The little boy of the farm-house.-His early education.-Enters the navy.-A mutiny, and its happy termination.-Instance of great physical strength.-Quits the service. Subsequent adventures.-Enters the coasting trade. The master's home.-Unhappy accidents.-The curate of Nigg.-Vessel lost in a storm.- Jack's narrative of the shipwreck.-A second marriage.-Terrible anger of a My birth and parentage.-Mythologic character of the recollections of early child- hood. My father lost in a storm on the sea.-An apparition.—A dreary season. -Stanzas.-My early education and reading.-Donald Roy.-Supernatural ele- ment in the religious character of the Highlanders.-Donald become a Seceder. Blind Harry's "Wallace," and its effects upon me.-Enter the grammar school. -Early individual development correspondent with an early national one.- Lessons learned at the grammar school.-Bellicose peat expeditions.-The par- ish schoolmaster.-My progress in Latin.-Development of a talent for story- telling. Became a sort of favorite with the master.-The yearly cock-fight.- My dislike of such barbarous exhibitions.-Evils of fixing the foundation of ethics on the practices of old divines.-Old Francie, the retired clerk, and his curious collections.-Lessons learned on the sea-shore.-The blank mica and garnet crystals of Cromarty.-Exploration of Cromarty Hill.-A wild paradise Quiet hours in the Ebb with Uncle Sandy.-Curious anecdotes of crabs and lob- Imaginary evils often greatly worse than real ones.-A midnight voice from the rocks.-Deliverance.-The incident immortalized in some enormously bad "Letters of a Village Governess," and poor Miss Bond.-My dislike of the com- mon amusements of the school.—A run of ill-luck in my sports.—The sea-shore become a miniature muster-ground.-Essays in bark-building and navigation unsuccessful.—Unlucky accident, and "break" with a friend.—A visit to the Highlands. Family worship.-Honesty a better security than locks and bolts. -The valley of the Gruids,—its interesting features.-Cousin William's guests. -Authenticity of Ossian.-A genuine Celtic breakfast.-Clan stories and legends Another journey to the Highlands.-A delightful residence.-Scenery of Loch |